7 PRAGMATIC WAYS TO END BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY

This piece was written earlier today by Ohwojeheri Al-Faruq, a student of Islamic knowledge from Edo State, Nigeria. It focuses on pragmatic solutions to ending Boko Haram insurgency that has lingered unabated in the country for the past 5 years. Enjoy.

1. Let the government recognize that this is a Muslim problem and let the Sultan know that accepting it is a Muslim problem does not tarnish Islam. God Almighty gives every community their own trial and they have to face it
not deny it if they must succeed. Let our Sultan call Boko Haram to a discussion with FG. A discussion where their agitation (if any) will be tabled and a compromise will be reached. People are not punished by people alone. If you can't stop their terror then negotiate with them and leave them to God Almighty. We can't be religious people and be closing the doors of
forgiveness no matter the atrocity done. If Allah was to close the doors of forgiveness when a sin gets too much non of us will have ours open by
now. However, the appeal for forgiveness should begin from the government pleading to those who have lost loved ones. The decision should not be up to those of us that have not lost anyone. This talk of
negotiating from "a point of strength" is ridiculous. If you have the upper hand already as a government then why will you negotiate? You negotiate when everyone is feeling the heat so
that there can be compromises. We can't sit in our conveniences in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt and make mouth about how we don't negotiate with terrorists. If you were so bold, fearless, and principled about it how come armed robbers rob daily and we don't see your type who tell them to shoot instead of giving them corporation?

2. If compromises for peaceful resolution are not
reached at least let both groups (BH and FG) agree to fight military to military alone. I strongly believe BH will accept this. The plan will be the
government will not arrest your wives and children nor attack innocents. You too will not do same. A free space for combat like the time of old will be appointed and it will be fight to finish and fairly so. If BH believe they are out for Jihad then they will gladly take this offer and we will save civilian lives.

3. If still they refuse these then the Sultan should raise an army comprising of Muslims from any part of the country and the world to fight them. I
assure you that when there is a rebellious group from among Muslims, it is Muslims that can fight them because they won't be able to get support using religious sentiments. The Sultan can work with retired and serving military personnels (he is one of them) who are Muslims to hurriedly train Muslim youths for this combat. Calling in America and Israel will only give Boko Haram legitimacy in the eyes of oppressed Muslims in other part of the world. They will be seen as fighting oppressors and their oppression will thus be disguised.

4. A vital part of the fight in point 2 is that while the training is on, the Sultan can gather the position of the scholars of Islam in one fatwa. Let this fatwa be signed by each and every known person of knowledge and circulated properly.
The fatwa should have the following qualities:
* No attempt to be liberal. Say Islam as it is and
don't sound like a sellout.
* Recognize their grievances no matter how silly or little and admonish them to be patient and point to the fact that fighting oppression which is Jihad is different from fighting because of anger.
* Address the issue of rebellion against
constituted authority. Very instructive in this regard is that the Prophet of Islam never fought Jihad as an insurgent. That is he never took up arms against an establish government under whose area of governance he was. One country or one state or one government fighting another is a
different matter. These and many more points can be made with many more evidences from the Qur'an and sunnah.
*Address the issue of the permissibility of revenge and educate them on the limits being that what you revenge with must not be more than what was done to you. Then go ahead to show them how they have done more harm than the government did to them.
*Must not include going to the extreme with them like calling them non-Muslims, or cursed, or condemned, among other rhetorics that has not help anyone.
*Evidences should be brought from scholars they respect and do not see as sellouts. Scholars from different parts of the world may also append their signatures to this. Let it be establish that this instruction to drop arms is an Ijmaa (a consensus of scholars), not just what one Mallam says in one Mosque and another politician says in one public lecture. All these are just suggestions of how I think the scholars of Islam may tend towards, but honestly they know best what and how to say what should be said. Note that I said SCHOLARS, not celebrity preachers that are creeping up trying to make
Islam look "cool" and hence watering down the religion in the process.

5. If the group still does not blink after all these, then the Muslim youths being trained for the battle should be ordered to fight them to finish. These Muslims will be gotten from:
*Muslims in the forces (Army, Police, e.t.c)
*Muslims with any form of vigilante training
*Any willing Muslim including migrants from all parts of Nigeria and the world who has seen this injustice and wants to answer the call of the Sultan. Those who get so angry and all cursy on
Facebook should stand up at this stage and work the talk.

6.Funding and weapons for this Muslim group going for the correct Jihad should be provided by Muslim countries with clear and transparent arrangement with the Nigerian government on
weapon control before and after the struggle. Again, Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia, and Qatar should provide assistance not America, Britain and Germany, if we truly want this to end.


7.One of the first duty of this Muslim group should be to protect the non-Muslim community in the North and their places of worship because as soon as Boko Haram start feeling the heat their first target aimed at demoralizing the effort is to intensify attack on non-Muslim so as to cause a
war from the other end. This Muslim group must be visionary, proactive and strategic and all these can be mapped out by the commandant of this group.

NB: My suggestions on this matter came from the following:
1. The Qur'an prescribes that if two Muslims fight, settle them, but if one is adamant and continues oppression then join the innocent one in fighting the oppressor (Qur'an 49:9).
2. The Prophet Muhammad said “Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is oppressed.” The Prophet was asked: “It is right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?” He replied: “By preventing him from oppressing others.” Now, this does not only tell us what to do, it also
shows us that the politics of no Muslim can act like Boko Haram is a LIE and the Prophet himself
had since informed us that some Muslims may become oppressors.
3. Allah says it CLEARLY in the Qur'an how things like these are solved when He said: "For had it not been that Allah checks one set of people by means of another, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, wherein the
Name of Allah is mentioned much would surely have been pulled down. Verily, Allah will help those who help His (Cause). Truly, Allah is All-Strong, All-Mighty." - Qur'an 22:40
May the end result be safety and security for the innocents.
Al-Faruq
07-07-15

Boko Haram have gone far beyond redeem; they are more aligned with ISIS now, hence their new name ISWAP. The only way to stop them is full patriotism by our troops and good intel.

No b play o

1. Ban Burqa -- it is a clothing being used by suicide bombers to conceal bombs

2. The Imams should be commissioned to re-orientate the youths in their mosques.

3. The fight should be seen as collective battle of all.

These are only moves to quench the flame. With the fire base still intact it, it won't go soon.

The best way is for the government of the northern states and their LGs to be honest to the point of stopping payment of loyalties to the Boko Haram.

psucc:
These are only moves to quench the flame. With the fire base still intact it, it won't go soon.

The best way is for the government of the northern states and their LGs to be honest to the point of stopping payment of loyalties to the Boko Haram.

Don't make claims you cannot substantiate with fact.

Elummah:
Don't make claims you cannot substantiate with fact.

And what are the facts you are looking for?

Until we tell ourselves the truth, the war is still a way farther from this battle.