World better off if western education is considered a sin (op-ed)
After Boko Haram (Nigerian based Islamic terror group) gained global attention by abducting over 200 schoolgirls and threatened to sell them into slavery I wondered the meaning of their name.
Al-Qaeda meant “the base”, like central planning, but Boko Haram’s activities were extreme, even for a terror group, so I figured their name translated into a firm belief that justified their actions.
But translators said it meant: Western education is a sin
What does that mean?
And what does that have to do with kidnapping?
Nothing, unless they meant “original sin”, which is something one is born into. That concept normally isn’t associated with Islam. But with a vivid imagination it can be argued that the schoolgirls were born into western education, and if Boko Haram borrowed the concept of “original sin” the kidnapping would be justify if their intentions were to return the abducted girls back into what they considered proper Islam.
But it wasn’t a rescue operation.
Boko Haram planned to sell them into slavery.
Now according to the Encyclopedia of Islam slavery is an exceptional condition that can be entered into under limited circumstances. (Profit motive wasn’t mentioned but I can understand why Boko Haram needs to avoid the phrase: The end justifies the means.)
But what does this have to do with western education?
It’s simple if Boko Haram endorses slavery and the emancipation of slavery has western origins then the morality of the west is a transgression against divine law -- or a sin.
I thought I figure it out until I saw a headline that read: Boko Haram doesn’t really mean “western education is a sin”.
The article stated the northern Nigerian Hausa language “doesn’t have a four-letter word that means western education … It is a word that came to be applied to a century old British colonial education policy that many Hausa-speakers saw as an attempt … to colonize their minds.” The article stated Boko meant bogus or fraudulent deception and Haram is an Arabic word that refers to things forbidden in Islam.
The article continued, “Boko is reasonably associated with ‘western education’ in English translation today. But the actual resistance was to something being imposed … A Japanese or Chinese or Indian educational system would have been just as boko (in this sense bogus).”
The article concluded, “The group’s name reveals … That their desire is not to obliterate non-Islamic education all over the world. Just in their own backyards.” (This ignored their activities in neighboring Cameroon and Chad.)
The next year after this article was printed Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS. A terror expert who lives in Nigeria stated the alliance would make sense for both groups “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands” and ISIS has its biggest affiliate toward a global caliphate.
Some reference sites have dropped the word sin and translated Boko Haram into “western education is forbidden”, but this translation is non-threatening.
It doesn’t translate that Boko Haram isn’t just opposed to modern morality but forbids its development. The world is better off with the inaccurate translation because it’s more accurate.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 3/23/16
Al-Qaeda meant “the base”, like central planning, but Boko Haram’s activities were extreme, even for a terror group, so I figured their name translated into a firm belief that justified their actions.
But translators said it meant: Western education is a sin
What does that mean?
And what does that have to do with kidnapping?
Nothing, unless they meant “original sin”, which is something one is born into. That concept normally isn’t associated with Islam. But with a vivid imagination it can be argued that the schoolgirls were born into western education, and if Boko Haram borrowed the concept of “original sin” the kidnapping would be justify if their intentions were to return the abducted girls back into what they considered proper Islam.
But it wasn’t a rescue operation.
Boko Haram planned to sell them into slavery.
Now according to the Encyclopedia of Islam slavery is an exceptional condition that can be entered into under limited circumstances. (Profit motive wasn’t mentioned but I can understand why Boko Haram needs to avoid the phrase: The end justifies the means.)
But what does this have to do with western education?
It’s simple if Boko Haram endorses slavery and the emancipation of slavery has western origins then the morality of the west is a transgression against divine law -- or a sin.
I thought I figure it out until I saw a headline that read: Boko Haram doesn’t really mean “western education is a sin”.
The article stated the northern Nigerian Hausa language “doesn’t have a four-letter word that means western education … It is a word that came to be applied to a century old British colonial education policy that many Hausa-speakers saw as an attempt … to colonize their minds.” The article stated Boko meant bogus or fraudulent deception and Haram is an Arabic word that refers to things forbidden in Islam.
The article continued, “Boko is reasonably associated with ‘western education’ in English translation today. But the actual resistance was to something being imposed … A Japanese or Chinese or Indian educational system would have been just as boko (in this sense bogus).”
The article concluded, “The group’s name reveals … That their desire is not to obliterate non-Islamic education all over the world. Just in their own backyards.” (This ignored their activities in neighboring Cameroon and Chad.)
The next year after this article was printed Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS. A terror expert who lives in Nigeria stated the alliance would make sense for both groups “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands” and ISIS has its biggest affiliate toward a global caliphate.
Some reference sites have dropped the word sin and translated Boko Haram into “western education is forbidden”, but this translation is non-threatening.
It doesn’t translate that Boko Haram isn’t just opposed to modern morality but forbids its development. The world is better off with the inaccurate translation because it’s more accurate.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 3/23/16
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