What is it about?
By answering four key questions about violent movements that fight against the state in West Africa, this original research found that Islamist movements are not any different from conventional rebel movements (such as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia and the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone).
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Why is it important?
The above conclusion is important because it contradicts the dominant view that Islamist terrorist organizations are new, foreign and different. A policy implication of this is that Islamist rebel movements could be resolved in the same way that past conventional rebel movements were.
Perspectives
Due to the globalist currency of the global war on terror, Islamist movements that employ terrorism are usually characterized in the image of the war on terror. This has had significant implications for peace and security in conflict-prone regions such as West Africa. It is important to localize understanding of this threat in order to appreciate its real causes and how to effectively respond. This is exactly what this article had hoped to do. The article provides important dimensions of rebellion which both scholars and policy makers may will find useful.
Muhammad Dan Suleiman, PhD
University of Western Australia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: What Makes Islamist Movements Different? A Study of Liberia’s NPFL and Nigeria’s Boko Haram in West Africa, Terrorism and Political Violence, September 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2017.1351957.
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