The group behind the latest violence in northern Nigeria is known by several different names, including al-Sunnah wal Jamma, or Followers of Muhammad's Teachings in Arabic, and Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa dialect.
The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri by Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. In 2004 it moved to Kanamma, Yobe State, where it set up a base called "Afghanistan", used to attack nearby police outposts, killing police officers.
Yusuf was hostile to democracy and the secular education system, vowing that "this war that is yet to start would continue for long" if the political and educational system was not changed.
In Bauchi the group was reported as refusing to mix with local people. The group includes members who come from neighbouring Chad and speak only Arabic.
Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western culture and modern science as well.In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf stated that the belief that the world is a sphere is contrary to Islam and should be rejected, along with Darwinism and the theory that rain comes from water evaporated by the sun.
What I find so ironic is the fact that the Western culture they oppose makes up a great part of their lives.........the guns and ammunition they use (and used) were all Western. As a Nigerian, it is very saddening that the Northern part of my country has been and continues to be the site of a lot of violence which are mostly religious in nature.
In July 2009 the Nigerian police started investigating the group, following reports that the group was arming itself. Several leaders were arrested in Bauchi, sparking deadly clashes with Nigerian security forces and the estimated deaths of at least 700 people.
I pray this kind of violence would come to an end and become history.
Source:
Aljazeera.net
Wikipedia
man...i also pray that something be done for this violance to end. war it is not the unswer
ReplyDelete.RSA
Dear Nkolika,
ReplyDeleteIt greatly saddens me to hear news of the violence in your country. Thank you for shedding more light on the situation. I listen to public radio here, which actually presents news from around the world including Nigeria, but nothing can compare to hearing it from someone affected more directly by the violence. Do you have family there still? In Botswana, you are physically quite far away from the conflict yet it seems that does not mean much when those you love are in the midst of it. At least that is what I feel when my husband's family is in danger from extremist violence in his country. You and your loved ones are in my prayers.
~e
Hello Elise,
ReplyDeleteYes I have family in Nigeria. Though they're in the Southern part of the country (The violence was [almost always is] in the Northern part of the country which has yhe largest Muslim population in the country).
Yet again though they're not where its happening I get panicky whenever such violence starts because they spread very easily.
Thank you so very much for your kind words and prayers.