A lot has been said about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the counter terrorism campaign of western countries, the crisis in the Middle East and how the foreign policies of western nations have been behind the murderous campaign of muslim jihadists and extremists around the globe. They tell us that the foreign policies of Europe and America are justifications and legitimate triggers of the jihadi attacks and killing of innocent citizens in Africa.
A lot has been said about ‘Islamophobia’ but very little attention has been paid to the raging forces of Islam-based phobia in many parts of the world.
There have been limited emphasis on islamic holy wars in Africa – the religious bloodletting that has been going on for centuries and how islamic extremism has undermined the prospect of peace.
Just to give you an idea of the scale of the problem, here is a message posted recently by a Hafiz Bawa from Northern Nigeria on the face book page of the local Nigerian Humanist group. It says:
”I don’t know what more Islam wants out(sic) of my society?
We are Black-African people with thousand years of our own Religions, Socio-Cultural identities; but we have discarded all that and have taken Islam as our Religion (except for a few christians), We have completely embraced, as ours, the Arab Culture and Social order.
We have lost half of our language to Arabic. I cannot list 20 full Hausa traditional names, because we only bear Arab names, sadly, our traditional names are forbidden (Haram) in the Arab religion. What more do you want?We live in a country with a secular constitution, but we are ruled with the Shariah law and we don’t see the irony when a Christian Igbo Soldier dies in Gwoza defending the Islamic monster our Sharia created.What more does islam need? Please Tell me.
We force our girls to wear the hijab but never care to equip them with skills and education for their future. We have turned all our children into Kor’anic scholars and our school curricula are written in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. We are as un-educated as the Mekkans, our youths are as stupid as them too, because We have successfully Broken all Alcohol bottles, now we take Hard drugs only.
See, there are thousands of Mosques and Madarrasa (Almajiri Schools) in my town, and there is one for every Islamic sect, from Shi,a Imamiya, Shi’a Isma-ashiriya to Sunni-Tariqa, Sunni-Sufi, Sunni-Wahabi to the Pakistani-unknown sects. We have everything that Islam has ever vomited. We are total Muslims here. In fact we have had our suicide bombers, our beheadings, mosques attacks, churches attacks, car bombs, school-boys slaughter, all of it Arab style.
What more do you want o’ Islam? ” So drawing from my experiences growing up in Nigeria where Boko Haram militants have been killing, maiming and kidnapping in furtherance of their campaign to enforce sharia law and realize an islamic state. Growing up in a country where islamic theocrats have consistently used the agenda of political islam to undermine the evolution of secular democracy and equal citizenship. And coming from a continent where imperialist Islam is entrenched in many countries and the bloodletting campaign of al Shaabab in East Africa and other islamic militant groups is showing no sign of abetting, I want to address the question – Will muslim jihadists give peace a chance in Africa?
First we need to bear in mind that cases of islamic militancy in Africa have sometimes international roots. Islam is a foreign religion introduced to Africa in the 7th century by jihadist holy warriors from the Middle East. Middle Eastern countries still sponsor and underwrite the propagation of islam in the region through trade and commerce, building mosques, covert and overt Madrassas schools, and encouraging jihad.
We must acknowledge and bring into perspective these transcontinental roots if we stand a chance of achieving peace in the region. Of course we cannot divest Africans – islamic scholars, jihadists, clerics, theocrats – of agency and responsibility. At the same time we need to understand that jihadist islam is not not a local issue. It is a global campaign.
Much of islamic militants attacks are extensions or reactions to religious battles ranging in other parts of the globe. Think about the attacks and killing of christians in Niger and Nigeria by jihadists, militants protesting the cartooning of their prophet in Denmark and France. Now I ask, what is the connection between non muslims in remote African countries and cartoons published in Denmark or France which most of them did not see or know about?
Jihadist attacks in Africa are fronts for the politics of competition between countries and bloc of states, the politics of domination and control by nations or groups of nations by the likes the OIC. They use economic incentives, development aid to woo African countries to endorse and embrace strictly islamist position on issues. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran wield a lot of influence in this politics They have a lot of stake in the business of holy war and peace in the region.
Jihadist Islam is not only about the politics of nations but also the politics of ideology, of texts and tradition, doctrines, dogmas and interpretations.
Religious conflicts are rooted in doctrinal disagreements and sectarian divisions and differences cast on the stone of dogma and absolutism, on teachings that are not prone to change or revision at least not by African midgets in this Mohammedan enterprise. These trans African connections including the ideological issues dim the prospects of peace because the hamper the ability of Africans to freely dismantle the machinery of holy war and exploitation, the infrastructure of jihad and islamic inquisition in the region. They narrow the chance, which local religious gladiators give or are ready to give so that peace could reign in the region.