Religious Violence and Democracy in Niger

Abstract

Deadly attacks on Christians and mounting resistance to secularism in Niger raise the question of whether the Muslim-majority country is turning away from democracy and toward a repressive form of Shari’a law. I argue that religious extremism in Niger has largely external roots and that domestic religious leaders are not pursuing a revolutionary agenda, even though they are increasingly involved in organizing social movements. The foreign nature of terrorist threats may even help preserve democracy by raising nationalist support for the state.