Boko Haram as MetaAxiological Dilemma, WVSU Faculty Lecture 2012

7/31/2019 Boko Haram as MetaAxiological Dilemma, WVSU Faculty Lecture 2012

1/26

Resolving Meta-Axiological Dilemma of

Conflictual Nigerian Identities

04/26/2012

Sundjata ibn Hyman, PhD. West Virginia State University


2/26

The recurrence of violence in the northern citiesof Bauchi and Maiduguri prompted a recent visit

to Nigeria by the Commissioner of United States

Commission on International Religious Freedom

(CIRF), Leonard Leo.

Mr. Leo observed that since 1999 over 10,000

lives have been lost to religious crises in

Northern Nigeria. This has occurred despiteprovisions in the national constitution for

freedom of religion and belief.


3/26

KADUNA 2000 -- NonMuslims opposed implementation of

Sharia law, resulting in an estimated 3,000 deaths.KADUNA 2004 -A newspaper article implying the Prophet

Muhammad would approve of the Miss World beauty pageantfinals sparked MuslimChristian riots.

KANO 2004 -- MuslimChristian rioting left an estimated6,000 dead.

MAIDUGURI2006 -- Muslim rally to condemn blasphemousDanish depiction of the Prophet Muhammad led to violent clasheswith Christians that left nearly 200 dead; churches, mosques andarea businesses destroyed; and, created a large refugee populationin neighboring Cameroun.

JOS2008Dispute over state election results in several days of

violent Christian Muslim clashes.MAIDUGURI2009 --Boko Haram members storm

government buildings and police headquarters. Several days ofgun battles ensued, culminating in assault onBoko Haramstronghold. Between300 - 700 peoplebelieved dead, and about

3,500 people displaced.


4/26

Ethno-religious violence in Northern Nigeria is

typically framed as an historical animosity betweenindigent Muslim and migr Christian faithcommunities.

The 2006 Maiduguri riots did identify as antagonists a

growing cadre of impoverished, jobless Muslim youth-- al Majirai-- educated bymallams who embracean increasingly fundamentalist perspective.

The 2009 Maiduguriviolence signaled the emergence

ofBoko Haram as antagonists. Nigerian security forces captured sect leader,

Muhammad Yusufand handed him over toMaiduguri police. Subsequent interrogation, several

hours later, journalists were shown Yusufs dead body.


5/26

FEARON-LAITINHYPOTHESISa

HUNTINGTONTHESISb

aFearon & Laitin, 2003:75, 82. Also see Fearon & Laitin 1996; Horowitz 1985; Posner 2004; Weingast 1997.

bHuntington, S.P. (1993, 1996).


6/26

Violent civil conflict is a result of socialconditions favoring insurgency: cc =(xn)

Where social conditions(xn) are:

x1= widespread poverty that marks financiallyand bureaucratically weak states,

x2= the size of ethnic groups relative to thenational arena,

x3

= the role of formal and informal institutions forconflict regulation,

x4= the extent to which different identities overlapwith or crosscut each other.

Fearon & Laitin, 2003:75, 82. Also see Fearon & Laitin 1996; Horowitz 1985; Posner 2004; Weingast 1997.


7/26

Strict parameters ofintra-Western civil conflicts

too narrow.

Conflicts are more inter-civilizational between theWest and non-Western societies, as well as among

non-Western societies.

Blocs of civilizations define their identity andculture determines primary interests and loyalties.

At the root of this clash of civilizations is astruggle between religious identity, attendantinterests and loyalties.

Huntington, S.P. (1993, 1996).


8/26

Western interpretations of conflicts aretoo narrow

Social conditions precipitate conflict.

Conflict between religious identity,interests and loyalties.

Culture determines objectives (primaryinterests) and loyalties.

Congruence between overlappingidentities


9/26

Strong Islamic (religious), weak Hausa identities (ethnic).

(incongruence between overlapping identities) meta-axiological dilemma

Strong Christian (religious), strong Igbo identities(ethnic). (congruence between overlapping identities)

westernized

High prevalence of familial socioeconomic disadvantage.(social conditions)

Strong perception of competition between ethno-religiousgroups over scarce economic resources. (social conditions)

Strong attitudes associated with negative historicalperception of indigenous Christian faith communities.(conflicting religious identities and loyalties)

c

ibn Hyman (2007). Maiduguri al Majirai: The Role of Street Boys in Ethno-Religious Violence in Borno State.


10/26

Nigerian militant Islamist group desiring the.

believes Nigerias government is being corruptedbyWestern ideas and wants to see replacement of thecurrent Nigerian federal democratic government

with a strictSharia basedgovernment

Hostile toward Western institutions (democracy),opposed to Western culture, Western seculareducation system , and modern science.

Members drawn largely from disaffected Muslim

youth who are university students and structurallyunemployed graduates. Followers are conservative,strict, and refusing to mix with local people.

Boko Haram translates as Western education is

prohibited.


11/26

a Muslim youth organization founded in 1995 by MallamLawal from the Indimi Mosque in Maiduguri under the

nameShabaab.

In 1999, Lawal yielded leadership to Mustapha Modu Jon,commonly called Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, to pursuefurther study at the University of Medina, Saudi Arabia.

in 2001, evolved intoJamaatulAhlus SunnahLiddaawati Wal Jihad(brethren united in holystruggle), and relocates in 2004 to Yobe State.

Members speak only Arabic, and membership includes

people from neighboring Tchad. Desires replacement of current form of government in

Northern Nigerian (constitutional democracy) withSharia basedgovernment. Sharia law is already practiced

in the North.


12/26

The name Boko Haram. 'Boko' -- Hausa for non-Islamic [western] education(from English "book

1).

'Haram' -- Arabic for prohibited, illegal, forbidden bydivine law, unrighteous, not prescribed by Allah,profane. The literal meaning of Boko Haram is Non-Islamic (Western) education is contrary to divine law.

Identifies a clear philosophical position within a largerscholarly debate among Northern Hausa Muslims over thesocial merits of the acquisition and diffusion of thematerialist, atomistic axiological set of Western society.

Signifies a fundamental disagreement with the socialtransmission through education of Western axiology andpraxes which includes its attendant cosmological andontological orientations (sic:value system)

1From modified Latin alphabet introduced by the French and English colonial authorities at the beginning of the 20th century for the Hausalanguage.


13/26

INTERROGATOR: Why should you say Boko is haram?

YUSUF: Of course it is haram.

INTERROGATOR: Why did you say that?

YUSUF: The reasons are so many

INTERROGATOR: The trouser you are wearing

YUSUF: (cuts in)it is pure cotton andcotton

belongs to Allah.

INTERROGATOR:But Allah said in the Quran iqra,that people should seek knowledge

Retrieved from http://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&caton 04 August 2009.
http://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cat


14/26

YUSUF: Thats correct, but not the knowledge that

contravenes the teachings of Islam.All knowledgethat contradicts Islam is prohibited by the Almighty.Sihiri (sorcery) is knowledge, but Allah hath forbiddenit; shirk (polytheism) is knowledge, but Allah has

forbidden it; astronomy is knowledge, but Allah hasforbidden it

INTERROGATOR:At your place we found computers,syringesare all that no products of knowledge?

YUSUF: They are purely technological things, not Bokoandwesternization is different.

Retrieved from http://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cat on 04 August 2009.
http://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cathttp://news.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3822:transcript-of-late-yusufs-interrogation-by-the-army&cat


15/26

Western education spoils the belief in one

God.(cosmology)

"Like rain. We believe it is a creation of God ratherthan an evaporation caused by the sun thatcondenses and becomes rain.Like saying the world

is a sphere.If it runs contrary to theteachings of Allah, we reject it. (cosmology --theology vs. science)

We also reject the theory of Darwinism."(ontology theology vs. science)

"There are prominent Islamic preachers who haveseen and understood thatthe present Western-style education is mixed with issues that runcontrary to our beliefs in Islam. (producesmeta-axiological dilemma)


16/26

Corroborates the Fearon-Laitin culturaldeterminism of the objectives of conflicting groups(primary interests).

Better specifies the Fearon-Laitin culturaldeterminism of underlying social conditions,particularly as such conditions are outcomes of a

postcolonial confluence ofreligion, ethnicity andgeopolitics that Fearon-Laitin categorizes as:

political(bureaucratic weakness, conflictualformal and informal institutional roles, ethnic grouprelative to the national arena),

economic (financial weakness), and

sociocultural(the extent to which differentidentities overlap with or crosscut each other,

loyalties).


17/26


18/26

economicDespite Nigerias oil wealth, February 2012 figuresreleased in Abuja indicate that poverty has increasedsince 2004. Overall, 60 percent live on less than $1 aday. And, in the North, Boko Harams stronghold,about 75 percent of the population is considered

poor. Every citizen appears aware of the glaringcontrast between his or her own life and those of theelite. According to Jason Burke, reporter for theGuardian (UK), it is relative, not absolutedeprivation, which is key. Three times as many

northern Muslims as southern Christians are poor.Northern demographics evidence a "youth bulge" ofmillions of young men with few prospects oremployable skills.

Adam Nossiter. In Nigeria, a Deadly Groups Rage Has Local Roots. Retrieved from the New York Times Onlinehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlon 25February 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.html


19/26

sociocultural--

Despite its bombing of a United Nationsheadquarters in Abuja, Boko Haram is not theimported, foreign menace Nigerianauthorities depict it to be. In its battle againstthe Nigerian government, Boko Harams targets

remain largely local. Strong religious but comparatively weak ethnic

identities in the North signal a more profoundcollision of opposing social forces for

predominance over social organization,structure, and their underlying patterns ofinteractions within an ascribed geopoliticalspace.

Adam Nossiter. In Nigeria, a Deadly Groups Rage Has Local Roots. Retrieved from the New York Times Online

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.html on 25 February 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/world/africa/in-northern-nigeria-boko-haram-stirs-fear-and-sympathy.html


20/26

that complex whole ofcapabilities and habitsacquired by man as a member of society. (Tylor, 1871)

asocial productformed through externalization,

objectification and internalization. (Berger, 1969)

patternedmeanings and conceptions historically

transmitted and expressed through symbols that

communicate, develop and perpetuate knowledgeabout and attitudes toward life. (Geertz, 1973:89)

the learned repertoire of every transmissible thought

and action. (Benton, 1982)


21/26

sharedunderstandingsthat people employto coordinate their activities.(Becker, 1986)

organizedbehaviorlearned from a social

group either through training or by imitation.(Jackson, 1993:170)

the expressive side of human life.

(Griswold, 1994)

a way of life

(textbook favorite)


22/26

a historically transmitted

cybernetic process ofhuman development

wherein shared

cosmological

perspectives and

idiosyncratic ontological

references comprise an

axiological set thatstructures and orders

social agency within a

well-specified, commonly

shared geographic space.


23/26

Boko Haram insurgency represents an ongoingpostcolonial battle between diametric culturalidentities:Islamic(Boko Haram) and Western(Western-styled and -influenced government,Western-trained state apparatus -- military,police)

Boko Haram insurgency represents a17-yearresurgence to reclaim Northern Nigeria fromcenturies of meta-axiological dilemma.

Boko Haram insurgency demonstrates theubiquity, rootedness and strength of Islamicidentity among Northern Nigeria ethnic groups.


24/26

Boko Haram insurgency offers identityformation as an intervening variable2 that shedslight on how Islam as an exogenously imposed

culturalinfluence on Northern ethnic groups(e.g., the Hausa-Fulani, Kanuri, Kanembu, Bolewa,Shwa-Arab) meaningfully relates to the objectivesof ethno-religious conflict.

Boko Haram insurgency appears to be anAfrican manifestation of the Islamic culturalbeliefs.

2 Intervening variable in theFearon-Laitin hypothesis.


25/26

It is a rational praxeological response tonormalize incongruent, antipodal axiologicalsets and identities (meta-axiologicaldilemma) by establishing an cultural modelof social reality with moral - evaluativecriteria for social agency whose rationalityobtains only in Islamic (non-Western) socialorganization.

AQuran-based axiological setis tostructure social agency within NorthernNigeria social space and support humandevelopment along Islamic lines.


26/26

Documents

Boko Haram as MetaAxiological Dilemma, WVSU Faculty Lecture 2012