Before dismissing Boko Haram and their idea of a caliphate as a fluke, one must note that the group is not original in its activities but is rather replicating every step of the deadly and vicious Islamic State (ISIS) which is currently ravaging Iraq and Syria, in every way. Its methodologies, both in recruiting foreigners who wreak havoc with such brutality that is impossible with any local Nigerian people, to its touting a version of Islam that every Islamic scholar has found strange and reprehensible, to the vow to overthrow the status quo and replace it with its weird version of the Sharia, Boko Haram has proved to be a Siamese twin of the dreaded ISIS which the West has vowed to combat in a collective resolve. Like ISIS that had started out as a terrorist group, Boko Haram no longer sees itself as a mere terrorist group, but now as an army that can hold and administer a territory. Like ISIS, it claims to govern according to harshly interpreted principles of Islamic law, including the imposition of dhimmi pacts on minorities and people of other religions – guaranteeing protection in exchange for the payment of a tax and the acceptance of second-class citizenship – and often worse. While the quality of its administrative capacity is questionable – like ISIS, it seems to insist on religious cleansing of the population just like ISIS did in Mosul where it ordered Christian and Yezidi minorities to convert or be massacred. From the tales of woe of Nigerians that have managed to escape from enclaves recently captured by Boko Haram, the bodies that are said to litter the streets are eloquent testimonies of what the group and its ‘caliphate’ promise. The present activities of the Boko Haram have provided certain object lessons and helped to obliterate the hopes and fervour of any people who might have been thinking and hoping that the ascendancy of the group would spell an opportunity for them to practice the more puritanical version of their religion. Many Iraqis had thought so initially but have rued the cooperation they had extended to the invading ISIS with thousands of their foreign fighters when they unfolded their bloody agenda. Those who might have harboured some sympathy for Boko Haram for the very reason that they are mouthing some religious pretensions have since become disappointed. The way it is, more Muslims seem to have suffered under the scourge of this marauding evil. Just like the initial ISIS, after it was formed by the Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – who was distinguished by his notorious roles in the Iraqi insurgency between 2003 and 2006 – first as, Tawhid wal-Jihad in the north of Iraq, when it depended on its affiliation with al-Qaeda for training and organization, Boko Haram seems to have followed the same path. Having also received funding and training from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and was designated by the US as a terrorist organization in November 2013, it seems to have peeled off and become more affiliated, even if philosophical for now, to ISIS. ISIS has since come of age and seems to be have been operating independently of Al-Qaeda which seems to have goose-pimples at the level of brutality exhibited by the group and believes that such brutality is capable of alienating supporters, as has become the case. With the ascension of the current ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2010, following the killing of al-Zarqawi in a US air raid, a new methodology has emerged which the Boko Haram seems to be copying closely. Just as ISIS was rushing to occupy the whole of Iraq and Syria and declare the territory as his Islamic caliphate, before being delayed by the US air strikes, Shekau and his colleagues seem to have the same programme for Nigeria and maybe Cameroun. - Uche Ezechukwu, Capital Matters, Sun Newspapers.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 07:46:48 +0000
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