That's is the most ignorant description I've every read about Salafists and ME region. Dude your definition of Salfy apparently is (Not Liberal Muslim) which an extremely ignorant and arrogant statement.
let's explain the basics because a lot of ignorant progressive muslims keep spamming this words without understanding the differences between Political Islam movements and Salfy reformation and Ahl-Al hadeeth.
Everyone like literally every traditional Muslim (Ashari, Sufi, Matrudi, Salafy, Mutazil) and if you want Madhab(Maleky, Hanbali, Shafey, Hanafi) say they are salafists because everyone claims to follow the correct way of the Salaf (Prophet, companions and the followers of first generations).
They are different in interpreting what the Salaf actually meant.
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Quick map for main current salfay movements in ME
Salafy is a really vague term, and not a solid core. Some follow some creeds some don't
The Salafy movements in middle east could be classified
1- مدخلية/جامية madkhalists: these are the one that forbids revolution against ruler, they are abusing a valid rule in fiqh against revolt against Muslim ruler even if he is unjust, lest the bigger evil of anarchy and brining non muslim rulings, these are mainly in saudi arabia and funny thing they are generally against fighting but they fight in Libya with Haftar, usually they are loved by the Rulers because they give religious legitimacy
2-سلفية علمية (scientific salafism /purists ) these are not heavily in politics, they are fundamentalists/ultraorthodox if you want western terms, Heavy on perusing scholarships and getting better at fiqh/theology , and Dawa.. generally they avoid involvement in Politics because they are thrown away in prisons if they are vocal and if they are minding their business they think engaging in democracy or politics is giving legitimacy to the non-muslim laws and democracy is Haram(tbh as a philosophy not a method of electing a ruler) .. In Arab springs some of them were in the revolutions and some of the supported the old regimes.
3- سلفية جهادية Jihadists these the guys who carry weapons these are the ones hide in caves and bombed by apaches, some attack the armies exclusively, some include civilians (they also vary but I'm not an expert)
people are mix and match of these 3 , there is a rivalry if not direct animosity between these mainlines ... you can see non politicalized muslim with big beard and calls himself a salafy but don't associate himself as one of the three. Each Arab country has its own flavor of one of the three, they have common stuff specially in عقيدة (Names and attributes of Allah) but the manifestation is different.
In Saudi Arabia, The Love Mohammed Ibn Abd el wahab.
In Egypt the modern salfi movement was pioneered by Rachid Reda and have a rivilary with Al Azhar and the government
In Yemen one of the scholars Abdur-Rahman al-Mu'allimee al-Yamani, Some consider him the modern successor of Ibn Taymiyaa
these are really liquid terms and creeds and they are no concrete steroetype if you look closely, if you are just liberal/progressive/non-Muslim all will just look the same as orthodox Muslims who says annoying stuff that make Islam hard to follow
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For the distinction between Ahl al hadeeth(Athar) and Ashari , Sufists, Motazila that is a different territory
Bottom line: Salfy is a broad term and doesn't mean "A Muslim who says stuff I don't like"