Boko Haram “accuses Nigeria’s government of being corrupted by Western ideas.” The goal of jihad in all its forms is to impose Sharia, and Boko Haram’s campaign is no exception. “Nigeria attacks claimed by Islamist sect Boko Haram,” from BBC News, June 1:
Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has told the BBC it carried out the series of bombings after President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration on Sunday.
The worst incident was at an army barracks in the northern city of Bauchi in which at least 14 people died.
A sect spokesman said it was also responsible for killing the brother of the Shehu of Borno, one of Nigeria’s most important Islamic leaders.
The sect has been behind numerous recent assassinations in Borno state.
It is opposed to Western education and accuses Nigeria’s government of being corrupted by Western ideas.
Clashes in Borno’s state capital, Maiduguri, between the Boko Haram and the police in July 2009 left hundreds of people dead, mainly members of the sect.
For the past eight months, sect members have been fighting a guerrilla war in Borno, killing policemen and people they believe were helping the security services in the fight against them.
‘Very loyal’
Sect spokesman Abu Zayd told the BBC’s Hausa Service that serving members of the Nigerian army had been used to carry out the bombings in the Bauchi barracks on Sunday.
These traditional institutions are being used to track and hunt us, that is why we attack them”
Some soldiers wanted to join the sect and had been used as a way of testing their loyalty to Boko Haram, he said.
But Nigerian army spokesman Brig-Gen Raphael Isa rejected the allegation.
“It is not correct. Let him publish the names of those pledging loyalty to Boko Haram,” he told the BBC News website.
“This is not a banana republic. We are one army united and very very loyal,” he said….
That, unfortunately, does not rule out turncoats or infiltrators who decide that “war is deceit.”