God’s Revenge on an “Unholy Regime”: Islamic Activists’ Interpretations of Niger’s Military Coup d’ État of 26 July 2023

Abstract

This paper discusses Islamic activism that emerged to mobilize the faithful to support the Nigerien military regime that came to power following the coup d’état on July 26, 2023. It interrogates how the coup d’état has been perceived and interpreted by Islamic activists and how it influences their mobilisation in support of the military regime. For the research method, traditional ethnography and digital ethnography are combined to create the material. The extracted materials were then transcribed and analyzed through the lens of religious infrastructure theory. Based on these ethnographical and netnographical materials, the paper argues that as a reaction to what I refer to as “rejected modernity,” these Islamic activists have transformed digital technology, mosques and public spaces into religious infrastructures to legitimize and uphold the political authority of the military regime.