Engendering violence- Boko Haram

The purportedly “Islamic revivalist movement” undertaken by the Boko Haram in Nigeria has been one of the problems has emerged in the International limelight recently. The rise of extremism by Islamist groups is often an implication of Western Oppression of the Muslims. Increasingly alarming is the rate at which we “casually” use the term third world country when we talk about India or even Africa for that matter. A pejorative term which now more than ever highlights the impact of western imperialism on our own language.  Violence in any society is engendered when an entity feels misrepresented or even underrepresented, and in turn victimized. But then again violence inflicted upon the innocent cannot be justified with this particular corollary. Another point of argument pertaining to the Boko Haram and its ideological inclinations put forth by many influential voices in the Muslim World is that they are “completely contradictory to the teachings of Islam. The common proposition that every religion propagates tolerance may seem idealistic but is well established and proven by many religious fundamentalists.

Now that both sides of issue are cleared let us look at how the theoretical framework of violence actually works. (My intention in adding this portion is that we need to study violence, to understand its implications)

1)Using coercion and threats

2)Using intimidation

3)Using Emotional Abuse

4)Using isolation

5)Minimizing, denying and blaming

6)Using Children.

7)Using economic abuse

8)Using gender privilege

-Out of these, atleast three to four means for inflicting appalling levels of violence have been utilized by the Boko Haram. Their intention is to ban western education,  promote the idea that women are mere instruments of reproduction, are generally opposed to the idea of girl child education. To sum up its stated aim is to establish a medieval style caliphate in north Nigeria. Their claims of establishing a new “Islamist” regime are contentious.

The International blame game is on now where the western media blames the Nigerian Government for its loss of regulation over these extremist groups or even its institutional failures. The process of Democratization need not always include steps by the West to impose political models on variant societies(Unless they are willing to ingest them), their role could be limited to demolishing obstacles to modernization and democratization from within these societies.  While the Nigerian government is busy defending itself, about 200 Nigerian school girls have been kidnapped, the Boko Haram is releasing videos about threatening to sell them off. Truth be told the lack of media coverage is a fretful issue.

Bloggers Note- I chose to write about this because I was befuddled when I saw the amount of space allotted to this issue in our own Newspapers. While the elections and the Narendra Modi: Mamata Banerjee verbal but ‘ animalistic’ exchange covered almost one fourth of the newspaper page, this issue was allotted a small column. I think we would rather live outside the bubble than inside a political zoo  filled with unamusing jesters.  If you want to be a part of the movement please don’t hesitate to like the Facebook page, here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/bringbackourdaughters