ABSTRACT
CONTENTS Introduction............................................................................................ 168 Historical Overview of Islam and Terrorism ........................................... 170 Understanding Political Islamism ............................................................ 171 Rise of Politicized Islamism in Africa ...................................................... 178 Political Islamism in North Africa ........................................................... 182 Political Islamism in Sub-Saharan Africa ................................................. 184
East Africa...................................................................................... 184 The Horn of Africa ........................................................................ 186 Nigeria ........................................................................................... 189 Senegal ........................................................................................... 192
Conclusion, Research, and Policy Strategies ............................................ 193 References ............................................................................................... 196 Appendix................................................................................................. 198
Introduction The coup d’état in Pakistan in 1977, the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, the assassination of President Anwar El Sadat of Egypt in 1981, and the bloody 1982 suppression of the Muslim brotherhood in the Syrian city of Hama, brought political Islam on the agenda. These acts of political activism have been branded political Islam. Political Islam is the adversary of democratic empowerment in the sense that it advocates submission, not emancipation. It is obviously far from liberation theology inspired by the Qur’an. It has no bearing on secularism because it advocates theocracy.
