| Sumario: | Boko Haram's founding after 9/11 was under-studied until the group reached its apex in 2015 and became an Islamic State "province." After 2015, al-Qaeda strategically and ideologically opposed Islamic State-style excessive takfirism (excommunication) and published documents on Twitter and Telegram revealing longer-standing alliances with, and more moderating influences on, Nigerian jihadist factions than was previously known. Concurrently, in 2015, the U.S. government began releasing letters captured from Usama bin Laden's compound on government websites that corroborated the content of those al-Qaeda-produced documents. This article discusses how understandings of Boko Haram's formation and militant turn changed after 2015, debates and controversies over the legitimacy of "Internet sources" in scholarship on jihadism and Boko Haram in particular, and arguments for and against the "Al-Qaeda Narrative" in Boko Haram studies.
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