This paper analyzes how Islam, as a body of discourses and practices, has been at the center of intense political struggles between soft authoritarian regimes of West Africa and social movements and networks. Given these regimes’ weak political legitimacy, both regime elites and opponents see in Islam a potential source of either regime legitimization or regime contestation. Islamist movements and Sufi brotherhoods are therefore seen by these regimes as actual, or potential, threats. Battles are launched to differentiate between ‘foreign’ and ‘local’ Islamic sources, the former being by essence disruptive and subversive and the latter being obedient and peace-prone. The status of specific ethnic minorities whose home region extend beyond national borders adds another layer of tension, as they are represented as potential sources of subversion given their (partly) extra-national origins, as importers of ‘foreign’ Islamic ideas and practices, and thus as destabilizing groups. To strengthen their legitimacy, soft authoritarian regimes thus build on the representations of threats created by these ‘Others,’ i.e. foreign Islamic sources and partly foreign ethnic groups, while opposition movements and networks draw on Islam as a source of social and political flawlessness to delegitimize these regimes. The cases of Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal are analyzed and compared.
