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Boko Haram's activities not reflective of Islamic faith, says Aregbesola
[Osun Defender] THE Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
terrorism in northern Nigeria is casting a pessimistic outlook on the future and fate of the country, but the terror group's activities should not be perceived as a reflection of the Islamic faith, according to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State.

In fact, the governor warned that other parts of the country might soon be engulfed in similar crisis as now happening in the North because of what he described as Nigeria's "indolent elite."

Speaking on Wednesday evening at the Harvard University
...home of the Best and the Brightest, contributed $878,164 to the 2008 Obama campaign. Is there a reason universities are among the top financiers of political campaigns?
, Aregbesola noted that while the "murderous activities" of Boko Haram continues to disturb the nation and fuelling pessimism, any interpretation of the terror group as a religious expression is a mis-reading of the crisis.

According to him, "other parts of the country are embroiled in varying degrees of violence and will soon catch up with the North, except effective leadership emerges at the national and local levels. The report of the murderous activities of a religious group in the North, Boko Haram, has been disturbing, fuelling pessimism on the fate of the country."

Aregbesola addressed scholars, students, diplomats, policy- makers and Nigerians in the Diaspora while presenting a paper at the university during the Nigeria in the World Seminar Series hosted by Nigeria-born Harvard professor of Religion, Jacob Olupona.

In a paper titled, Nigeria: The Challenge of Development, Aregbesola observed that projecting religious face of Boko Haram ignores a political manipulation by a political elite. To him, the sect "is essentially the manipulation of religion to achieve certain political ends. Unfortunately, the politicisation of religion has been a persistent characteristic of our national existence, with its attendant challenge to our development effort."

He lambasted the politicianship, hanging the major blame for Nigeria's lack of development on its set of leaders, stating: "Years of misrule have made religion a handy tool for the manipulation of the people by the ruling elite."
Posted by: Fred 2013-02-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=363039