Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION

The level of ignorance here is simply amazing: from conflicting sans
culottes violence from the bottom-up in the name of islam to reading
the present political geography into a past that was as truncated as
it was complex.

The Jihad of 1804 in Kasar Hausa did not go uncontested; it was
neither an Hausa project nor a Fulani Jihad as the Ibadan school has
consistently labeled it. Usumanu simply took the Habe aristocracy to
task for not praticing Islam in the way it should: his quintessential
claim. And when the Habe aristocracy resisted they did so on the same
grounds: questioning Usumanu's claim to speak for muslims.

The most dramatic confrontation on this issue took place between the
Jihadists and the ancient Kingdom of Kanem-Borno now under the Islamic
scholar: El Kanemi. The debate between the Jihadist and El-Kanami
centred on: Who is a Muslim!!!! This is important because the exchange
here seems to miss the point about Islam/the nature of Islam in the
then Kasar Hausa.

The second point is that there was NO Northern Nigeria in
1804/pre-1804; Nigeria did not even exist; and not yet the
geographical expression that Awo claim it was. Northern/Southern
Nigeria is a colonial invention of the post-world war one era when
Nigeria was imagined from above.

Hope this helps.



On 9/8/12, shina73_1999@yahoo.com <shina73_1999@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Abu,
> Adepoju has said what he thinks he knows about jihad and Boko Haram. And he
> has been consistent in pushing his claims towards what he thinks is the best
> way to resolve the issue. Why don't you also benefit us with your own
> knowledge? At least you know enough to claim that not every military
> conquest amounts to colonialisn, and I agree. It is not enough to simply
> refute. We are all Nigerians and need to brainstorm as much as we can on
> this matter. On the issue of jihad, Dan Fodio and Boko Haram, we all can
> learn a lot. And I suspect that is the essence of being part of this forum.
>
> Adeshina Afolayan
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amomoh2002@yahoo.com
> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 18:06:46
> To: Toyin Falola<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>
> Adepoju,
> Your long response open you up to further problems. I will pose just two of
> them as questions. What is colonialism? What is "Muslim imperialism"? I
> guess you can find more appropriate phrases for the point you are trying to
> make. Let me assure you that it is not all forms of military conquest and
> domination that amount to colonialism. Also, to attain imperialism requires
> a specific form of capitalist development.
> Here is the core point Prof. Emeagwali makes and l agree, "To conflate Boko
> Haram with Uthman dan Fodio is counter-productive
> and  misleading".
> I am not urging you to become a specialist on Jihad. But Wikipedia and
> merely reading a book by David Cook do not necessitate such a conflation.
> You misled yourself. That's why l urged for deeper and better reading of
> the literature.
> As a rule, l do not venture into terrain l do not know enough to make
> informed comment on.
> Your comment is not informed and it is misleading. That is the core point.
> And reading your long piece below further convinces me that you know very
> little about the subject.
> Abu
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com>
> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 18:29:47
> To: <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>
> I referenced the Wikipedia essay because it gives ready access to
> relevant information and is also rich in specialised
> scholarly references.
>
> The essay is a serious scholarly work, as befitting a study of such a
> pivotal figure in history.
>
> The fundamental point I am making about Dan Fodio does
> not require any specialised knowledge, though.
>
> The point is this-
>
> Dan Fodio imposed his perception of Islam on Northern Nigeria through
> a violent jihad and his successors took that jihad into the rest of what is
> now Nigeria until they were stopped in South West Nigeria.
>
> Are those points in doubt?
>
> Secondly, I have difficulty seeing the fundamental difference between
> Boko Haram and Maitasine except in terms of scope of ambition.
>
> The core similarity is trying to force others to identify with one's brand
> of extremist Islam.
>
> Dan Fodio is venerated because he succeeded in his jihad.
>
> He succeeded through military victory, not
> through force of ideological persuasion.
>
> He was therefore a colonialist, a Muslim imperialist using
> an interpretation of Islam as a means of political domination.
>
> Dan Fodio is described as pursuing a purer form of Islam which
> he imposed on the already Islamised Hausa.
>
> His successors went further to propagate the doctrine of the imposition of
> religio-political ideology by military force beyond what is now Northern
> Nigeria.
>
> A number of Nigeria's Northern states already practice Sharia.
>
> So, why is Boko Haram agitating for the entire nation to become an Islamic
> nation?
>
> May such demands not be related to Dan Fodio's alleged demarcation between
> a country ruled by unbelievers and that ruled by believers, urging
> believers to desert such countries?
>
> The Wikipedia essay makes the following claim:
>
> "In his book *Tanbih al-ikhwan 'ala ahwal al-Sudan* ("*Concerning the
> Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan*") Usman
> wrote: "The government of a country is the government of its king without
> question. If the king is a Muslim, his land is Muslim; if he is an
> Unbeliever, his land is a land of Unbelievers. In these circumstances it is
> obligatory for anyone to leave it for another country".
>
> Does anyone deny the correct attribution or this translation of this quote
> from Dan Fodio ?
>
> If it is disputed, it should not be difficult to get translations of the
> work and see for oneself.
>
> The bottom line here is-
>
> ideologies,
> and particularly religions, particularly the Abrahamic religions
> of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been renowned for zealotry
> and extremism, on account of a monolithic and exclusivist conception of
> truth that excludes all other claims as practised in the unrefined forms of
> the Abrahamic tradition, creating an enabling space for
> political adventurers, from Israelite nomads to the medieval Church to
> jihadists to pursue efforts at subjugating others in the name of religion.
>
> Usman Dan Fdio used the tools of military violence available to him. Boko
> Haram uses terorism.
>
> Unlike Boko Haram Dan Fodio is not described as attacking Christians.
>
> Can we really distinguish his vision from that argued by and for Boko
> Haram?
>
> A Northern Nigerian Muslim explaining the logic of Boko Haram described the
> group as attacking the 'corrupt secular authority' represented by the
> Nigerian government.
>
> How is that to be distinguished from Dan Fodio's claim to pursuing
> the imposition of strict Islam, among other reasons because he wanted
> to eradicate social vices from the rulers of the Hausa states?
>
> How is this logic different from efforts to link Boko Haram with social
> injustice, particularly injustice claimed to be directed against
> Northern Nigeria, an argument that is the central chorus of vocal voices
> from the North, an argument that neatly sidestepping the recurrence
> of extremist and imperialist Islam in history and its resurgence in
> Africa and Afghanistan, tries to place the enture burden for this terrorist
> menace on the Nigerian government, with the underlying subtext evoked by
> another wing of opinion from Northern Nigeria that Northern Nigeria must
> have the Presidency for its inadequacies to be adressed?
>
> I increasingly think Northern and Southern Nigeria should be divided.
>
> If such a division had existed, we might not have Boko Haram. If it
> emerged, it might have been dealt with in a more forthright manner.
>
> The fight against the group is complicated by the fact that its members
> are concealed among a high density population of fellow Muslims and
> ethnic affiliates whose loyalty is divided by terror, ties
> of religion, ethnicity and alienation from the leadership of a
> non-Muslim and non-Nothern President, whom vocal Northern figures tacitly
> encourage to place all their inadequacies on, after decades of rulership at
> the national centre by their own brethren, rulers who seemed to have
> impoverished their own people more than they have done the rest of the
> country.
>
> For scholarly correlations of violent Islam, from Dan Fodio, through
> Maitasine and Boko Haram, one could see
>
> David Cook, "Boko Haram: A Prognosis
> <http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/REL-pub-CookBokoHaram-121611.pdf>
> "
>
> and
>
> Adesoji Abimbola "The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in
> Nigeria<http://129.132.57.230/serviceengine/Files/ISN/125780/.../5.pdf>",
> who argues on this background to the crisis:
>
> 'The [Nigerian Muslim ] conservatives insist on a unitary view of society
> that recognizes no difference between state and religion, and they advocate
> making Nigeria an Islamic state administered according to the principles of
> Sharia law. For them, all Muslims belong to the umma (community), and the
> idea of a secular state is atheistic or syncretistic. Apart from
> challenging the Muslim affirmation of religious principles – especially the
> Sharia – the imposition of secularity, according to them, amounts to a
> cultural affront to a significant portion of the population and reduces
> them to the status of second-class citizens. Although this view is claimed
> to be a Quranic injunction, it does not enjoy popular acceptance among
> liberal Muslims who maintain that such a view does not imply the need for
> the Islamization of Nigeria nor does it endorse non-acceptance of the
> constitu- tional provision of the secularity of the state (Imo 1995: 58-59;
> Ibrahim 1998: 39-66; Ilesanmi 2001: 529-554)"
>
> Is this presentation, which certainly depicts Boko Haram,, not a
> restatement of the Dan Fodio script ?
>
> thanks
>
> toyin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 3:55 PM, <amomoh2002@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Prof. Emeagwali,
>> I am fast realising that this forum is a space people also use to REVEAL
>> their ignorance about many things, without knowing.
>> How can Wikipedia be a source of scientific information to make such wild
>> claim about Uthman Dan Fodiyo when there is a very rich corpus of
>> literature on the Jihad, on Islam in West Africa and Empires of West
>> Africa?
>> Abu
>> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
>> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 00:16:49
>> To:
>> usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>;
>> Mwananchi<Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com>; wolesoyinkasociety<
>> wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com>; Jos ANA Discussion List<
>> josana@yahoogroups.co.uk>;
>> nigerianauthors<nigerianauthors@yahoogroups.com>;
>> mbariliterarysociety<mbariliterarysociety@yahoogroups.com>;
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com<
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com>
>> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
>> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>>
>> To conflate Boko Haram with Uthman dan Fodio is counter-productive
>> and misleading. To link the group with Maitatsine may be closer to
>> reality .
>>
>> Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
>> www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
>> www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<
>> http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>
>> www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [
>> usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU [
>> toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 4:22 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue; Mwananchi; wolesoyinkasociety; Jos ANA Discussion
>> List; nigerianauthors; mbariliterarysociety;
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
>> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>>
>> The Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has initiated a war and
>> waged it for years against the Nigerian government, Christians and
>> Muslims it considers its enemies in the Muslim dominated Northern
>> Nigeria.
>>
>> The group describes the goal of this war as that of compelling the
>> government to make the country an Islamic state and to drive Christians
>> out
>> of Northern Nigeria.
>>
>> The group has carried out spectacular large scale murders, possibly in
>> the
>> thousands, of Christians and government agents, and targeted or killed
>> individual Muslims, in pursuit of its goal.
>>
>> The group, whose popular name name Boko Haram, means Western education is
>> forbidden, also bombs schools.
>>
>> The current situation can be described as one of confusion within
>> Northern
>> Nigeria and the rest of Nigeria since there seems to be no harmony of
>> perspectives on how to manage this crisis.
>>
>> The ideological vision of Boko Haram, its similarity to the less virulent
>> but also violent Maitasine uprising in the North some years ago, and the
>> relationship between ideology and violence as a means of enforcing a
>> perspective of Islam on a populace demonstrated by Uthman Dan Fodio<
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usman_dan_Fodio>, the father of contemporary
>> Islamic civilisation in Northern Nigeria, implies that the central issues
>> at stake in this struggle against Western civilisation need to be
>> addressed at the level of ideology and practice.
>>
>> Failure to do this implies that such uprising could recur as they have in
>> the past, in various forms, from Dan Fodio to the present.
>>
>>
>> Uthman Dan Fodio initiated a jihad - in this case, an effort at
>> Islamisation through violence- as a means of imposing his preferred
>> form
>> of Islam on the Northern Nigerian Muslim Hausa population.
>>
>> Boko Haram, like Maitasine in the past, is also engaged in a violent
>> jihad to impose its form of Islam on the Northern Nigerian population,
>> Muslim and non-Muslim.
>>
>> The jihad initiated by Uthman Dan Fodio eventually tried to push into
>> the rest of what is now Nigeria until it was stopped in the South-West.
>>
>> Boko Haram has also initiated a similar jihad, but so far, has been
>> unable
>> to penetrate significantly beyond the North.
>>
>> This recurrence of efforts to impose an ideological orientation through
>> violence, as in the jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio and his successors and the
>> later examples of Boko Haram and Maitsine suggest that such developments
>> may be expected to continue as a continuity can be traced from from
>> the
>> time of Dan Fodio to the present.
>>
>> What is the challenge here?
>>
>> How best may Islam in Northern Nigeria be accommodated to the
>> overwhelming
>> presence of Western civilisation, the civilisation Boko Haram is fighting
>> against?
>>
>> The sheer paradox and possibly even frustration experienced by these
>> Islamic terrorists in their fight against Western civilisation is that
>> the
>> central tools of that fight are derived from the secular culture of the
>> West, the guns, bombs and communications technologies developed after the
>> West had defeated the suffocating hold of the Christian church, a hold
>> that
>> was a deterrent to bold scientific and technological development.
>>
>> While recognising this paradox, the delusions of fanatics like Boko Haram
>> should not blind us to the real issues that such fanatical behaviour
>> might
>> led one to dismiss as backward and deluded.
>>
>> People of religious faith might want something more not evident for them
>> in the overwhelmimg dominance of Western civilisation.
>>
>> It is stated that some Muslims in Northern Nigeria are uneasy with
>> Western
>> education although that does imply support of the violence of Boko Haram
>> or
>> Maitasine.
>>
>> How should such uneasiness be addressed?
>>
>> Can Islamic civilisation and education replace Western education
>> successfully in today's world?
>>
>> Is it possible to harmonise both?
>>
>> If so, what are the essential qualities of both forms of civilisation and
>> education that need to be harmonised for best results?
>>
>> Addressing these issues implies that a central question is addressed
>> without resorting to extreme solutions that support completely one
>> position or another, for or against Western or Islamic education.
>>
>>
>> Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
>> Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
>> Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
>> "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
>>
>>
>>
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