A comparative evaluation of secular repression and religious repression on religiously motivated terrorism in Muslim-majority states

Abstract

While present scholarly works have established that regimes which impose greater levels of restrictions on religion would face higher probabilities of terrorism, as compared to states that are more religiously free, the differential impacts of varying forms of religious restrictions – secular repression and religious repression – on the plausibility of religious terrorism are less discernible. In this research, terrorism refers to the act of political violence perpetrated by non- state actors who are propelled by a religious motive. Using negative binomial regression analysis on data pertaining to religious incidents in 47 Muslim-majority states between 1991 and 2018, this article establishes that secular repression presents a higher frequency of generating religiously motivated terrorism as compared to religious repression. This paper concludes with implications on both research and policy.