In the modern nation states, it is difficult
to tell who your friends are or say who your enemies are today or will be
tomorrow. When it comes to preserving national security, trusting no one is the
best idea. This is because information you share today might be used against
you tomorrow. In their 2003 book, “The Complete
Idiot’s Guide to National Security”, Michael Benson, Danny O. Coulson, and Allan
Swenson (2003) wrote that Americans cannot easily tell who their enemies were. They
narrated how the Soviet Union fought a war in Afghanistan against the ruling
government there known as the Taliban, how America considered Taliban a friend because
they were enemy of America’s enemy (Soviet Union) and supported Taliban in that
battle. “Today, the Taliban is known as
the government who gave the terrorist group Al Qaeda a home in Afghanistan….
Now, the Taliban is the friend of our (America) enemy (Al Qaeda) and so has
become our (America) enemy”.
America
supported Iraq and President Saddam Hussein during the 1980s bloody war between
Iran and Iraq. In a twist, America led the world into Iraq in search of weapons
of mass destruction, found none, dethroned President Saddam Hussein, and hanged
the dreaded perceived leader of the Great Middle East. America deceived the
world to hit at Iraq and took over its oil and wealth. Deception has no other
side. The policeman of the world knows how to use you against yourself.
This
stance has been demonstrated by America in several other fronts and has led the
world to arm race and the discovery of weapons of mass destruction, biological
and chemical weapons, laboratory accidents and escape of deadly viruses,
nuclear reactor accidents, espionage and counter-espionage and harvests of
assassinations. It aided industry, it killed industry, and suffocated
economics, toppled governments, installed stooges and is attempting not only to
imprison the world but bring it to untimely end.
The
weapon of the cold war is deception. The cold war between America and USSR
revealed the state of mind that encourages international deception and the mind
of the state that perpetuates it. The big brother favours fraud instead of
force to manipulate, dominate and control the world. In its war against
communism America perfected a system I refer to as “set them against themselves”
(STAT) to hasten the collapse of USSR when all strategies and tactics
failed. According to Dr. Rachel
Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen in the book “Pirates,
Terrorists, and Warlords (2009) by Jeffery H. Norwitz (ed), Shari’a which
is the sole of Islam is referred to as, “the enemy – shari’a”, followed by the
statement, “Exposing shari’a and all its
adherents, be they states, organizations, or individuals, is crucial to our ability
to defend ourselves. It will also enable us to undermine shari’a’s global
structure, turning adherents against it, the way we did with communism”. To
the Muslims the declaration of cold war on Shari’a
is not only provoking but a call for the protection of Islam and the Muslim
world. Besides, they are not ignorant of
America’s cold war strategy which is set
them against themselves.
To
Michael Benson, Danny O. Coulson, and Allan Swenson (2003), “militant Muslims have replaced Communists as
the number-one enemy to U. S. security….”
The
“Pirates, Terrorists, and Warlords” (2009)
by Jeffery H. Norwitz (ed), describing shari’a wrote, “Shari’a is the set of Islamic laws established by Muslim jurists,
based on the Qur’an and deeds of the prophet Muhammad, as recorded beginning
more than 1,200 years ago. Its end goal, for all time, is establishing a world
ruled entirely by Islam and the harsh shari’a laws. These laws govern every
aspect of daily life and prohibit individual, political, and religious freedom”.
Shari’a
is not only an adversary but have replaced communism as America’s number-one enemy.
In Northern
Nigeria there are numerous Muslim groups, which want to introduce shari’a in
the whole country. In the states of the North these demands have been executed
in 1999 and 2001. In the following 9 states the Shari’a has full validity:
Zamfara, Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Jigawa, Kebbi, Yobe. And in
Kaduna, Niger and Gombe states the shari’a is valid for areas with a mainly
Muslim population.
Boko Haram which
has been active since 2001 in northern Nigeria is not only seeing itself as a
body of radical Muslims but also as a people committed to the propagation of the
prophet muhammad teachings and jihad with a very strong ideological
concept such as Islamic extremism and
Islamic fundamentalism with an aim of
Islamizing Nigeria. Apart from deriving inspirations from the Holy Quran, they are
marshaling their unifying and supporting factors from what they termed America’s
perception of Islam as “evil” and shari’a as “enemy”. Thus, they tagged Western
education forbidden evil and Western lifestyle sin. Boko Haram is merely attempting
to Islamized Nigeria as soon as possible for fear of America’s indoctrinating the
entire country. The war directed against the Nigeria state by Boko Haram was
born out of fear and inferiority complex.
True that after the
fall of Communism, America may have wrongly or rightly perceive Islam as an
emerging enemy or shari’a as a threat. The fear is not misplaced. Americans fear the role of shari’a and the Muslim
Brotherhood in developing a global ideology and a political movement supported
by a parallel Islamic financial system designed to exploit and undermine the Western
economics and markets. But, there has never been any official pronouncement in
that regard.
To the Americans,
this movement is the foundation and the major funding source for the political,
economic, and military initiatives of the global Islamic movement. They are also
of the opinion that the end goal of this movement is to impose that ideology
globally, making the “Islamic nation” or ummah
supreme. And so, the best solution is to dislodge Islam and contain Shari’a. Further
still, no official statement has been made public; but the bombs are booming,
lives are being lost daily and properties are being damaged on regular basis.
What position is
Nigeria occupying in the Islamic circle to deserve her listing as a potential
Islamic state? Many Nigerians are asking. If you are one of those asking such
question, listen: Have you forgotten that Nigeria is a member of the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)? Are you not aware that almost all northern
states have adopted “Shari’a” – the Islamic legal code? Are you not aware of the
fact that Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world? Are you ignorant of the fact that Nigeria is
among the wealthiest nations of the world? Besides, Nigeria is blessed with enormous
resources and Nigeria’s voice is loud globally. When you combined all these you
will see why the fight for Nigeria’s soul is so fierce and bloody.
Members of the
Boko Haram Islamic sect are all aware of role the United State’s national
security played for more than 40 years that eventually brought about the dissolution
of the Soviet Union. Therefore by comparing Shari’a to Communism, Islamic
fundamentalists are of the opinion that America is out to adopting the same
military might and technology to confront their perceived emerging archenemy –
Shari’a. Perhaps, that is why there are ongoing crises in all countries with handful
of Muslims populations across the world. A war of survival if you like!
Yet by launching
terror attacks on a nation’s innocent and lawful citizens, the Muslim fundamentalists
have not only expressed their fear of eventual extinction of Islam as a
religion but expose their weakness in terms of the ability to sustain their
Islamic faith in the face of a more superior Christian religion.
The
adoption of Shari’a law between 1999 and 2001 contributed immensely to Islamists
mobilization in northern Nigeria and is fast fuelling the deep dissatisfaction
with socio-economic conditions and poor governance as well as provoking vociferous
religious ideology with periodically obscures violence that is being driven
more by economic factors and religious ideology and social sustainability
syndrome. Survival instincts have the potential to drive a people to be
aggressive to ensure their survivability and to also do anything that guarantee
their uninterrupted growth and development.
Boko
Haram has succeeded in infusing religion into a long-churning brew of
grievances about wealth and power distribution, corruption, and injustice. To
this, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Government has responded poorly not
only to the long-standing ethnic tensions in the country, but also to the
specific case of Boko Haram, often ignoring or instigating the former while
brutally and indiscriminately overreacting toward the latter.
On
the other hand, our security personnel has proved that they overwhelmingly lack
intelligence capacity and the ability to either disrupt attacks before they
happen or track down real culprits who are at times connected to key
politicians.
President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Government must move beyond the blunt use of lethal
force by improving intelligence-collection and building healthier
civil-military relations. Sending tanks to the streets may appease the angry
public, but it is not an effective counterterrorism policy.
The
United States whose stance on Islam and Shari’a contributed to unify all
Islamic fundamentalists all over the world and acted as indirect boost and support
for their campaign must encourage the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Government
to address the political, economic, and religious insecurities that give
resonance to Boko Haram’s ideology.
The President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Government
must also empower and protect the many moderate Islamic leaders in the north
that have stood up against Boko Haram even while facing assassinations.
Ultimately, the real solutions to the Boko Haram menace are both local and
global
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