Islamic Leadership Model and the Burden of Terrorism and Leadership in Nigeria: Issues, Myths, and Realities

Nigeria, Challenges Of Terrorism: Roots Of Boko Ḥarām

One of the many myths about the Jamā ‘atu Ahl al-Sunnah Lī al-Da‘awah wa al- Jihād (Movement of the people of the Prophetic Tradition for propagation and Jihād) popularly known as the Boko Ḥarām (hereafter BḤ), which literally means western education is forbidden assumes the group is against western-style education. Whereas the reality reveals that Boko in classical Hausa literally means deception and is used to describe a “fake bride.” Adamu (1978) explains that the word boko connotes the “fake bride’ historically a feature of the Hausa wedding, riding the horse in place of the real bride as part of the convoy that escorted the bride to her new home. So, when the missionary brought education, the Hausa generally labeled it ilimin boko or fake education and since then the name ilimin boko has remained the standard translation of education among the Hausa. Since Ḥarām, on the other hand is the Sharī‘ah term for what is forbidden, prohibited or unacceptable in Islam, the term, BḤ could be interpreted as was originally used during the Fulani/Hausa Muslim contact with the Western-style education in Nigeria to mean “fake education” or evangelism deceptively camouflaged as education is prohibited in Islam (Da‘wah Coordination of Nigeria Council, 1430/2009).