I'm trying to work out if this is an example of something politicised in the west, but obvious to most of the rest of the world. Or if they're just blindly ripping off legitimate government policies to make them look legitimate.
I mentioned "more" legitimate as they want to be seen as the de jure govt and not just de facto through doing things normal govts would or might do.
You can check out Somalia's territory map here which includes Al-Shabaab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group)#/m...
Many 'legitimate governments' in the US don't even have this policy.
People have to be pretty desperate to strap bombs to themselves, and they usually start with more immediately productive actions, like smuggling medical supplies and food past (sadly, often western) blockades.
As always this is in no way a mitigation of the behaviors of Hitler, Al-Qaeda, or whomever else. I am just emphasizing that the world isn't black and white. Something I think is especially important in modern times as people grow increasingly divided over far less serious matters.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_and_vegetarianism