Boko Haram: a Nigerian Brand of Thwarted Religious Fundamentalism and Terrorism
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Department of Socinlogy College of Development Studies Covenant University Ota, Nigeria
Abstract
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Historically, religion bequeaths man with the opportunity
to relate with his creator for fulfilment and completeness.
However, a new brand of acute religiosity which developed
with the late modernity is notably characterised by an
excessive emotional enslavement of men to strange
dogmas devoided of basis in all known transitional
societies. Existentially, the spate of fundamentalism
explicable under the cloak of 'right to worship' in this era
is continually assuming a dangerous dimension in its global
context. The core of this deviation lies in the 'flexibility of
meanings' often made possible by the chronological ethos
'eternally inherent' in most religious books and mostly found
suitable by spiritual leaders to channel the potentials of
their adherents to embark on causes that are diametrically
opposed to the true intentions embedded in such religious
ethos. Consequently, the boundary between such
fundamentalism, sectional interest and criminality stands
blurred and thus engenders disillusionment on how best
to tackle the upsurge in violence often attendant . of
fundamentalism. In line with this, this chapter interrogates
the environment of religious teachings that promote the
activities of the Boko Haram Sect and its resultant lethal conflict in Nigeria. It also seeks explanation to this trend
in both interpretive and modernisation theories and finally,
charts a pragmatic direction needed to avert in the future
the dire consequences of religious fundamentalism in
Nigeria.
Keywords
HM Sociology