User:Tmelkerim/sandbox

THE REAL MEANING OF BOKO HARAM From September 2014 to January 2015, I worked as a consultant for the French group CIVIPOL CONSEIL in Nigeria in a Project funded by the European Union, the EUTANS (European Union Technical Assistance to Nigerian Security). A project aimed at combating Radicalization and Violent Extremism in a country daily attacked by the Boko Haram Group. As part of this Project, I contributed to: •	A study aiming at establishing a moral and civic education program for pupils in primary and secondary education •	Supervision of seminars and workshops for Imams •	Supervision of workshops for capacity building of prison staff and imams to prevent radicalization. So, I was able to gather information and data on Boko Haram. What struck me most was the confusion around the origin of the name Boko Haram. During discussions and exchanges with religious and young people from the North, I got to know the real origin and meaning of Boko Haram. Among the factors that promote the establishment of violent extremism, the first of all is social, economic and political exclusion and marginalization. Thus, it seems amazing to me that no one gives the origin of the exact meaning of the term BOKO HARAM. If the implementation of this Salafist-jihadist movement has been so rapid and astounding, it is due to a particular form of exclusion of a fringe of the country's youth. Nigeria is a country with a very important Muslim population and Arabic is present as a language in the north part of the country for centuries. Traditionally young people use go to koranic schools and particularly before the country  independence a lot of families  avoid to send their children to colonial schools, avoiding English language. Since the sixties, some young people went to schools and universities especially to University of Al Azhar in Egypt but also to Saudi Arabia, Syria…. Upon their return to Nigeria, they faced unemployment, finding no jobs in a country where the official language is English. These young people begin to consider the culture of the Book (English) because someone who do not know English is excluded from jobs. They start to say : “ Boko is Haram (حرَّام ) which mean  Boko (western culture or language )  is excluding from jobs, opportunities, not inclusive  or “depriving”. It seems that the term has been used for the first time  in  Ngala,  Borno  State,  North-eastern  part  of  Nigeria. So in In Arabic the term Haram (حرَّام َام is different from HARAM (حرام ) a term well known and used dally, which means sin or something banished by religion. The term Haram (حرَّام ) was used by these young people well trained in Arabic and who express their feelings towards that exclusion. But the term has almost the same pronunciation  as Haram (حرام),  a term well known and used dally,  which  means sin or something banished by religion), a term well-known in Muslim language and used  on a daily basis. And the formula became popular as HARAM (حرام ). A formula that can easily spread among a people traditionally hostile to the colonial school. The term quickly spread in the public before being recovered by Mohamed Yusuf, the Founder of the salafist-djihadist  Boko Haram, probably in 2005.

Tijani Mohamed El Kerim Director of the Mauritanian Institute for Access to Modernity in French Institut Mauritanien pour l’Accès à la Modernité (I.M.A.M.) •	International and Senior UN Consultant, •	Former Mauritanian A