Ultimately these plans failed because he could not reach a consensus with the powerful Islamist factions.

In the same decade, it is believed by many scholars that the Indonesian military split between a nationalist "red and white faction" and an Islamist "green faction."

But Israel says it is opposed this time because of the participation of Hamas, an Islamist faction that calls for the destruction of Israel.

Furthermore, Kurds have risen to leadership roles in Islamist factions such as Al-Nusra Front.

It is a civil war in which a radical Islamist faction is striking out at the West and at moderate Muslims.

Boko Haram is a shadowy group believed to have a number of factions with differing aims, including those with political links and a hard-core Islamist faction.

Mossad supposedly assissted Hamas destroy the PLO and to create a civil war between the secular and Islamist factions of the Palestinians.

Mujaheddin who saw the anti-Soviet war as a largely nationalist struggle were sidelined by Zia in favour of the most radical Islamist factions.

He is said to represent an Islamist faction "more rooted in the leftwing and egalitarian ethos of the revolution" than theocracy.

Shahzad admitted training in bomb-making at a camp run by a militant Islamist faction in the Waziristan region in Pakistan along the Afghan border.