Boko Haram "Sharia" Reasoning and Democratic Vision in Pluralist Nigeria

Authors

  • Benson O. Igboin Department of Religion & African Culture, Adekunle Ajasin University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/v10223-012-0055-z

Keywords:

terrorism, Islam, Al-Qaeda, education, jihad

Abstract

In the decade since Al-Qaeda, led by the late Osama Bin Laden, attacked America, there has been a resurgence in the debate about the relationship between religion and politics. The global Islamic terrorist networks and their successful operations against various targets around the globe increasingly draw attention to what constitutes the core values of Islamic extremism: the logic of evangelistic strategy, the import and relevance of its spiritual message and consideration of the composite view of life that does not distinguish between sacred and temporal mandates. Suspicions have been fuelled that Islam is incompatible with modern democratic systems and pluralist outlooks. The real cause of Islamic militancy is at once universal and particular. The Nigerian experience of this radical Islamism–Boko Haram–brings home the once “distant” threat to global peaceful co-existence. While there exist arguments regarding the raison d’etre and means or methods of the operations of Boko Haram, the end has been normative; to achieve a purely religious nationalistic system on the basis of the sharia code of ethics. This paper, therefore, critically analyses the historical and philosophical interpretations of Islamic history constructed as an infallible corpus, and how it has been impacted by the democratic vision in Nigeria. It concludes with a consideration of the possibility and practicability of a liberal system at once free and religious in a pluralist and global society.

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Author Biography

Benson O. Igboin, Department of Religion & African Culture, Adekunle Ajasin University

Benson O. Igboin specializes in Philosophy of Religion with a special bias on religion and conflict and African cultural values. He has attended several local and international conferences where he presented papers on burning issues on religious conflict, interreligious dialogue and global harmony. He has also published widely in reputable journals and contributed many chapters to books. He co-edited Religion and the Nigerian Nation: Some Topical Issues (2010); co-authored ONANISM: A Moral Evaluation of Political Power Retention in Nigeria (2008) and Theistic, Atheistic Arguments: Issues and Problems (2006).

 

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Published

2012-11-01

How to Cite

Igboin, B. O. (2012). Boko Haram "Sharia" Reasoning and Democratic Vision in Pluralist Nigeria. International Studies. Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal, 14(1), 75–93. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10223-012-0055-z

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