Salafism is usually associated with violence, but the vast majority of Salafis belong to the so-called apolitical current that has been promoted in Saudi Arabia and has been used against its opponents as represented by Islamism, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, and political Salafis, the Saudi Sahwa movement. One group, led by Rabi‘ al-Madkhali (b. 1931), was particularly focal in the campaign against political Islam. For this he was eventually given the honorific title of “Carrier of the banner of the Critique (jarh) and Praise (ta‘dil) of the Era” by his teachers Bin Baz, Salih Fawzan al-Fawzan, and Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani. The campaign had both an ideological and an institutional side. The first consisted of the publication of a whole series of books and pamphlets denouncing the opponents as deviants, while the latter was directed at purging the Islamic universities in Riyad, Medina and Mecca of members of the Brotherhood and turning them into apolitical Salafi bulwarks. Many of the students of these universities were foreign Muslims, and therefore the influence of the Madkhali current to Europe especially to France, Great Britain, and to a lesser extent the Netherlands. In many ways, the campaign of Rabi‘ al-Madkhali can be seen as the Saudi version of the war on terrorism. It condemned extremism (ghuluw), partyism (hizbiyya) and activism (haraka). But aside from not having the right creed (‘aqida) and method or program (manhaj), the opponents were accused of not having the right conservative morals and attitudes (akhlaq). Although al-Madkhali’s current is called “apolitical”, it is in fact deeply ambiguous: on the one hand it rejects politics in the sense that one is in general discouraged from asking “unnecessary” questions; on the other hand it is extremely political by holding the view that the correct creed means that one supports the present rulers (wali al-amr) in the Arab world---especially KSA---and one should refrain from instigating dissension (fitna). This paper will trace the ideological discourse and institutional build-up of the Madkhali school since the 1980s until the present in its local setting in KSA as well as in its transnational dimension in Europe. It will try to answer the question why the movement was so successful in gaining followers but failed in stemming violent Jihadi-Salafism. The paper is based on in depth research of the written sources and field work in Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.