Nigeria and Al Qaeda
By Douglas Farah
A new wave of radical Islamist attacks in Nigeria point to the spread of wahhabist theology in the region and the significant difficulties facing West Africa's perennial hot spot.
As I have noted earlier, in 2003 Osama bin Laden specifically mentioned Nigeria as a target for the spread of al Qaeda, and shortly thereafter there were a series of smaller scale attacks. But the actions of the "Nigeria Taliban" were widely dismissed as simply jihadist "wannabes" that posed no threat.
The truth is that there is a large and radicalized Muslim population in northern Nigeria, where 12 of the states (out of 36 in all) have imposed Sharia law. The radicalization is mixed with a deep sense of historic grievance against the south and the central government, as well as antagonism toward the sizable Christian minority. Not all Muslim in the north are radicalized, nor are all seeking a violent change in the state system.
But those in the lead of the new, self-proclaimed Taliban, are, and want to push sharia law to a more extreme form. As one of the leaders of the current violence states:
"Democracy and the current system of education must be changed otherwise this war that is yet to start would continue for long."
The Islamist fighters are thought to belong to a group known as Boko Haram, which means "western education is sin". My full blog is here.
