As a result of structural adjustment, state capacity to co-opt oppositional movements declined and services were increasingly restricted to urban middle class and elite areas. Income distributions polarized. Structural adjustment meant that states were unable to provide previously established levels of services or to ensure adequate supplies of commodities. . . . The political and moral vacuum opened up great opportunities that were seized by Islamists, who established a social base by offering services that the various states have failed to provide.

SEED: Potential article angle on how state retrenchment creates vacuums opportunistically filled by ideology-driven service providers.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 339