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Islamism in Mauritania and the narrative of political moderation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2017

Francesco Cavatorta  and
Raquel Ojeda Garcia
Francesco Cavatorta*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur l'Afrique et le Moyen Orient (CIRAM), Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Raquel Ojeda Garcia*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
*
Email: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The rise of Islamism following the Arab Spring has renewed interest in the democratic credibility of Islamist parties and movements. Focusing on the case of Mauritania's Islamists this article analyses the validity of the moderation hypothesis and argues that for some Islamist parties, moderation, when historically situated, has always been a key trait. The case of Mauritanian Islamism is interesting because it takes place within an intellectual and geographical place that straddles both the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa, therefore providing insights on how Islamism has become an influential ideological framework in both worlds, that are much less separate than superficially believed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 301 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

We are very grateful to the referees for their comments and suggestions, which helped us to strengthen the article and render our arguments much clearer.

References

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