Period 5
Religious Challenges
Africa stands as the united continent that has overcome many complex issues regarding the diversity of its society; rather that has to do with religion, culture, race or anything else. Despite the struggle, Africa has justified democratic laws such as freedom of religion. This new policy has brought peace to various disagreements among the different religious beliefs in the diverse community of Africa. However, a terrorist formation, Boko Haram, is one of the dangerous groups that does not want to give up easily on its religious viewpoints.
Boko Haram, originally founded in 2002, claims to be from the religion of Islam, while Islamic society does not consider them to be this religion at all. Its name “Boko Haram”, consists of a combination of two words “haram” means forbidden, and “boko” - fake. As many people declare it, the group considers the education that British colonialism brought - wrong. It led to anger among Muslims at the imposition of a non-Islamic education system (BBC), eventually causing the formation of this group. Boko Haram is protesting western education, which they consider to be the threat to Islamic ideals. This has caused them to commit various terrorist attacks on African boarding schools, implying western education.
Throughout history, there have been various terrorist groups in Africa.But what do we really mean by saying a word “terrorist”? Officially , terrorist is defined as a "a person who uses unofficial or unauthorised violence or intimidation in the pursuit of political aims" (DIC) Similar to the definition, most of the terroristic groups of Africa had ultimate political goals, which they tried to implement through causing violence in the society. In spite of that, Boko Haram has brought the society into deep confusion because of its contrast to the definition of a terrorist, despite its violent actions. There are various arguments whether or not to call this group “terrorists”, because politicians do not want to associate this word with the Islamic religion. Various articles define that “[Boko Haram] is lawlessness all over the place”(DIC). Moreover, it completely differs from other terrorist groups, making it for Africa harder to disarm and take action against.
Despite some of the knowledge that was gained about Boko Haram, it still continues to commit various violences in the society. Governments are in deep trouble, looking for the group . It is considered active, because its last attack was committed in 2014 (DIC). No one knows when the new attack is going to occur, but the thing that is well known is that governments are in deep actions of trying to seek out the group and stop it from harming the society even more.
SOURCES!
"Profile: Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. Helped me seek out the facts.
We Must Look Deeper for Answers to Boko Haram [column].(Column).Murtala H. Nyako, n.d. Web. This helped me recognnize the goals of the group Boko Haram.
"How Africa Can Beat Terrorism.(COVER STORY: Terrorism)(Cover Story)." Baffour Ankomah., n.d. Web. Helped me to define the word "terrorist".
I didn't realize before how much action Africa was taking to attempt to stop Boko Haram. The fact that they are hesitant to call Boko Haram terrorists because they do not want terrorism associated with Islam reminds me of the USA because there is also a problem with the sterotyping of Muslims in America. What will it take for Boko Haram to stop terrorizing Africa and lose all of its power and influence?
ReplyDeleteI like how you look into the root cause of the formation of Boko Haram, and the origin of its name and meaning? What makes Boko Haram different from other terrorist groups, so that people do not want to classify it as a terrorist group, besides relgion?
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how you delved into the history of Boko Haram, and especially the use of the word ¨terrorist.¨ I feel that this connects to the United States because when Boko Haram kidnapped the 276 girls, the US really went against Boko Haram with the #BringBackOurGirls thing. My question is, What conditions are allowing Boko Haram to continue to grow and prosper.
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting on how you focused how you mainly focused on the history of the "religion" and how many Muslims believe that Boko Haram is in fact not part of their religion. This really connects to what we consider terrorism in the United States and how often we connect Muslim to terrorist attacks, not just here, but around the world. It shows that Muslim people especially do not want to be associated with these terror attacks and that we shouldn't be associating them with these groups of people. Why did this topic interest you and how did you get to it out of all of the Africa topics?
ReplyDelete