ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 argued that existing explanations, whether they look to variables internal or external to opposition organizations, are unable to account for why some organizations will use violence and others won’t, despite similar ideological understandings of the political process and similar exposure to regime-sponsored repression. This chapter will argue that part of the explanation centers around an understanding of the way in which organizations articulate their ideology and, further, that an organization’s rhetoric acts on the political process so as to influence the political opportunities available to the organizations in question. By comparing the rhetoric first of the Christian Coalition and the Army of God, and then the Muslim Brethren and al Jama’a al Islamiyya, it will be shown that rhetoric affects an organization’s place in the political process, thereby reducing or increasing the urgency of the cause for which they fight.
