Regime Ideology and Terrorism in the Muslim World

• In Event: Ideologies, Mobilization and Resistance

Abstract

Scholars of religious violence have long acknowledged the role played by extremist ideology in fomenting faith-based terrorism. Underappreciated, though, is the fact that terrorism stems not just from the “bottom-up” ideologies held by particular extremist groups, but also from the “top-down” ideologies adhered to by the state. Both groups and political regimes can hold political theologies that encourage terrorism. This paper examines the effect of three regime-level theologies—secular repression, Islamism, and religious freedom—on the production of religious terrorism in Muslim-majority countries from 2007-2018. The statistical analysis shows that while political theologies of Islamism encourage terrorism, states upholding political theologies of religious freedom effectively resist terrorism. Secular repression has no discernible effect on the incidence of terrorism. The results are robust to various model specifications and methodological checks.

Author

• Nilay Saiya, Nanyang Technological University