Boko Haram

They come in various names, these splinter groups of the Islamic tradition who have gotten tired of the intrusion of Western (read, European and U.S.) methods into their native, and often, tribal affairs. Their social structures derive from Sharia the Islamic law, and though they come in names like al-Qaida and Taliban, al-Shabab and Abu Sayyaf, they are similar in the ideological claim that their social agenda promotes Islamic law, and from each a particular understanding of it.

One of the notable traits of the Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad (Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad), known by its Hausa name (a Nigerian ethnic and linguistic group) as Boko Haram, is precisely its absence of qualms in appropriating the name, meaning “Western education is sin.” That translation at least allows for choice as “sin” is not determined even in the Judaic sense of the “original.” Another translation is definitely declarative: “Western education is evil!” The last one brooks no appeal!

We are familiar with the Pashtun group of the Taliban (spelled Taleban, “students” of Sharia) who taught the world that Western exploitation of oil and mineral resources, whether it was out of Moscow or Washington, comes with a price. Boko Haram does not mince any goat meat in its attempt to stop Westernization, even with such folks as the non-political trades-only Chinese who were harassed recently out of North Cameroon while engaged in a government infrastructure project inadvertently along the Western model of development.

I flew in from London in the early ’80s to Nigeria, our flight diverted to Kano Municipal because of a sandstorm that intersected the flight pattern. Noting the Spartan surroundings of the Hausas compared to the wild and glittery industrialization of my final destination, Lagos of the Yoruba, it was clear that the only reason the Federation was still together was the Western oil companies’ stranglehold on the country, its military beholden to the British tradition. Yoruba imposed by the colonial masters is the national language; would we be surprised if the Hausas like Boko Haram took exception to that?

Kano still serves as the location of Northern Nigeria’s International Airport, serving a large Lebanese population that keeps the Beirut traffic constant, and those heading for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Abuja at the geographical center of the country is Nigeria’s Canberra (Australia) and Brasilia (Brazil), planned cities. The foreign quarters of Kano was virtually emptied when the state adopted Sharia in 2000. Three days ago, a Christian church in Kano’s foreign quarters was bombed. The Christians are identified with the economically well-off and politically powerful Yoruba.

Even with the stillborn oil-rich Biafra Republic that plunged the country into a civil war in the late ’60s getting drummed and pacified to remain in the union, the current Nigeria of colorful President Goodluck Jonathan is running out of luck and is unraveling at the seams, now with the high-profile Boko Haram abduction of school girls, and Abuja unable to do anything about it.

Several time zones away this week, the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan Island west of the southern island of Mindanao where U.S. foreign aid was shifted in the ’70s, mostly in the form of military assistance, took a mother and her daughter in the capital town of Isabela, both identified as Chinese. They were abducted from their karaoke club, which was allegedly also a point of illicit trade in flesh and drugs. The victims are of Chinese descent who have since fuzzed the issue of nationality.

One out of five persons on the planet is of Chinese descent, though many had never been nor carry I.D.s identifying them with Beijing. That, however, is a minor detail when kidnapping Chinese for ransom in the Philippines. They are not abducted because they are Chinese, but because all Chinese are presumed to be loaded.

These diverse groups commonly claiming fealty to Sharia have become forces to contend with, especially in fossil fuel rich areas in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. The patriarchy that rules its ranks is threatened by the egalitarian and democratic idealism of Western education, or, at least, the pretensions and hypocrisy of it all, which is on practice simply a matter of degree rather than kind among Western powers. The rule has become an object of dissent and protest for the downtrodden and disenfranchised. With the promise of heaven, along with waiting 72 virgins, warriors are self-immolating terrorists with very tragic consequences.

Sharia is the latest of the triumvirate from the Levant claiming its rightful place in humanity’s social landscape, following the Torah’s Ten Commandments, and NT’s Sermon on the Mount. However, it is a mistake to keep labeling these groups as Islamic. It would be like calling any of the cultic branches of Christianity, particularly the puritanical promoters of Aryan supremacy, Christian. It only promotes inaccurate and vengeful stereotyping. We should rather look at what is “sinful” that Boko Haram and other dissident groups find in Western education.