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Boko Haram

The official name of the Boko Haram group is actually Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means "People of the Sunnah (the practice and examples of the Prophet Muhammad's life) for Preaching and Jihad Group". But the Hausa-speaking residents in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, where the group had its headquarters, dubbed it Boko Haram. And for reasons of brevity, this is the media's preferred name. Boko Haram translates from the local Hausa language to mean "Western education is a sin", according to most media reports. But a few voices of doubt have been raised. How could two words convey so much information? (Winsor, 2015) There doesn't seem to be much debate over the word "haram". It means prohibited or sin, most scholars accept. The word is Arabic in origin. But there is confusion over "Boko". Some claimed it was derived from the word book. But African language expert Paul Newman has said they are what the French call "faux amis", two similar sounding words with no relation when it comes to meaning. Boko means "inauthentic" or "fake", says Mohammed Kabir of the BBC's Hausa Service. It does not literally mean education. (Monitor, 2014)

The word's evolution is bound up with colonialism. In 1903 the Sokoto caliphate, which ruled parts of what is now northern Nigeria, Niger and southern Cameroon, fell under British control. It led to anger among Muslims at the imposition of a non-Islamic education system. The term "ilimin boko" was used to describe the kind of schooling the colonialists brought with them. Literally, a limit is education (an n is added when it appears as part of a phrase). So ilimin boko is fake education. The fakeness described the foreign form of education being imposed. And the foreigners involved were Western. So it can mean "Western education" in a pejorative sense. Over time the phrase ilimin boko became shortened to just boko. But everybody knows that it is shorthand, Kabir says. "Western education is a sin" may not be the literal word-for-word translation. But it is correct, Kabir says.(Relations,2014)

Ideology

Boko Haram was founded upon the principles of the Khawaarij advocating Sharia law. It developed into a Jihadist group in 2009. The movement is diffuse, and fighters associated with it do not follow the Salafi doctrine. Their beliefs tend to be centered on strict adherence to Wahhibism, which is an extremely strict form of Islam that sees many other forms of Islam as idolatrous. The group has denounced the members of the Sufi, the Shiite and the Izala sects as infidels. Boko Haram seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria. It opposes the Westernization of Nigerian society and the concentration of the wealth of the country among members of a small political elite, mainly in the Christian south of the country. Nigeria is Africa's biggest economy, but 60% of its population of 173 million (as of 2013) live on less than $1 a day. The sharia law imposed by local authorities, beginning with Zamfara in January 2000 and covering 12 northern states by late 2002, may have promoted links between Boko Haram and political leaders, but was considered by the group to have been corrupted.

According to Borno Sufi Imam Sheik Fatahi, Yusuf was trained by Kano Salafi Izala Sheik Ja'afar Mahmud Adamu, who called him the "leader of young people"; the two split some time in 2002–2004. They both preached in Maiduguri's Indimi Mosque, which was attended by the deputy governor of Borno. Many of the group were reportedly inspired by Mohammed Marwa, known as Maitatsine ("He who curses others"), a self-proclaimed prophet (annabi, a Hausa word usually used only to describe the founder of Islam) born in Northern Cameroon who condemned the reading of books other than the Quran. In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf, described by analysts as being well-educated, reaffirmed his opposition to Western education. He rejected the theory of evolution, said that rain is not "an evaporation caused by the sun", and that the Earth is not a sphere. (Relations,2014)

History

Before colonization and subsequent annexation into the British Empire in 1900 as Colonial Nigeria, the Bornu Empire ruled the territory where Boko Haram is currently active. It was a sovereign sultanate run according to the principles of the Constitution of Medina, with a majority Kanuri Muslim population. In 1903, both the Borno Emirate and Sokoto Caliphate came under the control of the British. Christian missionaries at this time spread the Christian message in the region and had many converts. British occupation ended with Nigerian independence in 1960.

Except for a brief period of civilian rule between 1979 and 1983, Nigeria was governed by a series of military dictatorships from 1966 until the advent of democracy in 1999. Ethnic militancy is thought to have been one of the causes of 1967–1970 civil war; religious violence reached a new height in 1980 in Kano, the largest city in the north of the country, where the Muslim fundamentalist sect Yan Tatsine ("followers of Maitatsine") instigated riots that resulted in four or five thousand deaths. In the ensuing military crackdown, Maitatsine was killed, fuelling a backlash of increased violence that spread across other northern cities over the next twenty years. Social inequality and poverty contributed both to the Maitatsine and Boko Haram uprisings.(Relations,2014)

In the decades since the end of British occupation, politicians and academics from the mainly Islamic North have expressed their fundamental opposition to Western education. Political ethnoreligious interest groups, whose membership includes influential political, military and religious leaders, have thrived in Nigeria, though they were largely suppressed under military rule. Their paramilitary wings, formed since the country's return to civilian rule, have been implicated in much of the sectarian violence in the years following. The Arewa People's Congress, the militia wing of the Arewa Consultative Forum, the main political group representing the interests of northern Nigeria, is a well-funded group with military and intelligence expertise and is considered capable of engaging in military action, including covert bombing.(Winsor, 2015)

Founding

Mohammed Yusuf founded the sect that became known as Boko Haram in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the north-eastern state of Borno. He established a religious complex and school that attracted poor Muslim families from across Nigeria and neighboring countries. The center had the political goal of creating an Islamic state and became a recruiting ground for jihadis. By denouncing the police and state corruption, Yusuf attracted followers from unemployed youth. It has been speculated that the reason Yusuf founded Boko Haram appears to be that he saw an opportunity to exploit public outrage at government corruption by linking it to Western influence in governance. He is reported to have used the existing infrastructure in Borno of the Izala Society (Jama'at Izalatil Bidiawa Iqamatus Sunnah), a popular conservative Islamic sect, to recruit members, before breaking away to form his own faction. The Izala were originally welcomed into government, along with people sympathetic to Yusuf. Boko Haram conducted its operations more or less peacefully during the first seven years of its existence, withdrawing from society into remote north-eastern areas. The government repeatedly ignored warnings about the increasingly militant character of the organization. The Council of Ulama advised the government and the Nigerian Television Authority not to broadcast Yusuf's preaching, but their warnings were ignored. Yusuf's arrest elevated him to hero status. Borno's Deputy Governor Alhaji Dibal has reportedly claimed that al-Qaeda had ties with Boko Haram, but broke them when they decided that Yusuf was an unreliable person. Stephen Davis, a former Anglican clergyman who has negotiated with Boko Haram many times blames local Nigerian politicians who support local bandits like Boko Haram in order for them to make life difficult for their political opponents. In particular, Davis has blamed the former governor of Borno State Ali Modu Sheriff, who initially supported Boko Haram, but no longer needed them after the 2007 elections and stopped funding them. Sheriff denies the accusations.(Monitor, 2014)(Relations,2014)

(Relations,2014)

Morgan Winsor (17 April 2015). "Boko Haram In Nigeria: President Goodluck Jonathan Rejects Help From UN Forces To Fight Insurgency". International Business Times. Retrieved 18 April 2015.

"With Help From ISIS, a More Deadly Boko Haram Makes a Comeback". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 11 September 2015. "We have restricted Boko Haram to Sambisa Forest – Buhari". Retrieved 21 May 2016.

Monitor, M. (2014, May 13). Who, What, Why: Exactly what does the phrase Boko Haram mean? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27390954

Relations, C. O. (2014, February 25). Background Briefing: What Is Boko Haram? Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/boko-haram

Nigeria's Battle With Boko Haram. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/nigerias-battle-boko-haram