ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in this book. The book argues that the central issue fuelling political radicalism on the basis of religious reformism in the Sahel-Sudan is the seeming incompatibility between the civil state (democracy, secularism) and Islam. At independence, Salafi reformism knew a spell in the wilderness in most countries, lasting through the early 1970s in Burkina Faso and Mali, and the late 1970s in Senegal. In Niger, Salafi radicals have scored two major negative successes. First, they have prevented women's rights organisations from Francophone modernist circles from ensuring the adoption of a secular family code in the 1990s. Second, Salafi nationalists have won a symbolic victory by securing the removal of the word 'laïcité' from Niger's constitutions. In Senegal, a reformist front of Salafi radicals and Sufi reformists unsuccessfully attempted to re-open the case of the family code. Lastly one should not discount the impact of Islam's international politics.
