feelings of disenfranchisement

• Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria felt alienated by Shiite-led governments. ISIS played on these feelings, pushing forward a sense of victimhood and giving these communities a mean to feel in control through violence.

  • Additionally, ISIS seeks to emulate the expansive success of Islamic conquests during the 7th to 10th centuries. This is seen in subjugation through terror and the establishment of an imperialist theocracy, with a view of ultimately dominating the globe.
• A cause of Boko Haram terrorism is Salafism. Notably, Salafism is a revivalist movement in Sunni Islam to the ‘golden age’ which demands a theocratic Islamic State. Being the underlying ideology of Boko Haram, Salafism has caused its formation as a terrorist organisation whose ideals are in contradiction of states.

  • 2015 – Election eve decapitations – In 2015, on the eve of the Nigerian Elections, Boko Haram beheaded 23 people, a symbol of pro-Salafist ideology (resistance to the current political system in Nigeria).