Daily Times

Boko Haram in Nigeria and the TTP in Pakistan are geographically, linguistically, and culturally disparate groups. However, the identical trajectory of Boko Haram and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) establishes that they were created from the same mould.

Such Salafi-Jihadi movements claim to be subaltern resistance to the forces of globalization. Nigeria and Pakistan have their commercial capital located in their southern end. TTP’s ideological base is in Northwestern Pakistan, while Boko Haram’s is in northeastern Nigeria. They are not mainstream movements, and neither is an expanding juggernaut.

While Nigeria has its Christian elite residing in its northern part, Pakistan has its Punjabi elite based in the central region. Both of these powerful groups are considered the enemy within these movements of political Islam. The US establishment could never get its all-volunteer army to enlist for the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by stating its true goal of seeking control of energy sources. The US had to build a narrative of defeating the forces of evil who posed a threat to world peace – namely weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Usama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Boko Haram and the TTP’s true goal is also the control of territory and resources in a border zone. They similarly built a narrative of Muslims being under attack to enlist jihadis for a battle of good versus evil. These movements deviously claim to oppose the western dominance of indigenous societies. Since both Boko Haram and the TTP are not fighting invaders or non-Muslims, they had to declare the state and its citizens as heretics. This turns them into the “enemy” they need to defeat. This narrative requires religious exclusivism that opposes all other value systems, including rival interpretations of Islam. The exclusivism then posits that democracy, constitutionalism, alliances with non-Muslims, and Western-style education are all anti-Islamic practices. This makes the state their target.

The politics of victimhood is oxygen for Boko Haram and the TTP. Boko Haram claims a long history of persecution against Muslims in Nigeria. TTP bases its anti-western ideology on the great game played by Great Britain, Russia and the US – with the Pakistani state being an ally of western powers. The combination of exclusivism and grievance has provided the ideological framework for violence toward the state, its military and its citizens – including other Muslims.

Boko Haram and the TTP’s true goal is also the control of territory and resources in a border zone. They similarly built a narrative of Muslims being under attack to enlist jihadis for a battle of good versus evil.

Alongside other drivers of violence – including local politics, socioeconomic factors, and military action as the government’s response-the stories of Boko Haram and TTP are eerily similar. Both groups’ leaders have consistently relied on religious rhetoric in an attempt to justify brutality, score-settling, and provocations.

Occupation of Palestine and Kashmir has led to the ummah believing that Muslims must close ranks against perceived enemies. However, Boko Haram and TTP’s leaders have consistently used extremely narrow criteria to define who counts as a Muslim. This is why their foot soldiers are, whether for ideological, material, or personal reasons, willing to slaughter those whom the leaders have designated unbelievers. Nigeria’s preacher Muhammad Marwa, known as “Mai Tatsine (The One Who Curses),” rejected Western technology, promoted a “Quran-only” doctrine, and called himself a new prophet. This ideology reverberates among the foot soldiers of both the TTP and Boko Haram.

As per this worldview, western-style education is sinful not just for its intellectual content, but for its political impact. Boko Haram first caught international attention in April 2014, when it kidnapped 276 school girls. It was part of a greater pattern of attacks on schools, where boys were often killed outright. Boko Haram’s leader Abu Bakar Shekau was avenging Nigerian authorities’ detentions of its sect members’ female relatives. The Pakistani state did not take any such foolhardy action against TTP members’ female relatives. Hence the TTP could not justify kidnapping women and only massacred boys in the Army Public School incident of 2016. However, during the attack the TTP terrorists burnt alive female teachers, exhibiting sociopathic brutality.

Salafi-jihadi movements assert the right to declare Muslim leaders apostates, rebel against allegedly infidel states, use force to impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law on civilians, and unflinchingly inflict extreme brutality. Both Boko Haram and the TTP aspire to set up a pure Islamic society under Sharia law. Both view the United States, European countries, and Israel as evil powers that seek to destroy Islam. They see their home governments, their functionaries, and their citizens as treacherous allies of the evil west.

Boko Haram’s founder Mohammed Yusuf studied religion in Saudia Arabia. Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, the present chief of the TTP, studied religion in Karachi. These credentials were needed by these two malignant narcissistic leaders to establish their power base.

Contrary to their stated goal, neither has rejected western technology or systems. Their hypocrisy exposes their true agenda of being power-hungry narcissists using religion to gain power. They know how being in a position of authority, via Islam, is the perfect way to be above reproach. They know they have a free ticket to mine people for acclaim, attention, and resources.

Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammad Yusuf worked in coordination with his state’s governor Ali Moudi Sheriff’s government. For four years he was at the peak of his career. During this time, he rose from a poor preacher to a wealthy cleric. He lived in opulence and drove SUVs around the city, where he was hailed as a hero for his criticism of the government and his call for sharia law. As a classic Munafiq, he was a beneficiary of the democratic state, while decrying it.

Mohammed Yosef, the founder of Boko Haram eagerly accepted a hefty paycheck from the state and drove SUVs when he was able to. Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud’s photographs sport a western-made AK-47. He published a book using the western printing press. His TTP has a robust social media footprint, with such technology being a western instrument. Since he uses the national currency, he also partakes in the interest-based international financial system.

This is sheer hypocrisy.

During the 1990s, an American mathematics professor became opposed to western technology and industrialization. He became a terrorist, known as the Unabomber. True to his mission, he was living alone off the grid. The peaceful American Amish community, committed to a communal and pastoral way of life, also does not use electricity, automobiles, or cell phones. Kibbutz was founded in Israel as a utopian farming community, combining socialism and zionism. They were true to their cause when it came to property ownership, gender roles and social life.

There was no hypocrisy in these western movements of exclusivism. Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud is only trying to take advantage of the former FATA’s underdeveloped status by creating a turbulent political environment. He is aspiring to become their spiritual and political leader.

In May 2014, Boko Haram killed the emir of Gwoza and founded an “Islamic state” in that town. The proof of the pudding is in its eating. Boko Haram’s then leader Abu Bakar Shekau had said, “Our state is ruled by the Book of God; our state establishes the Sunnah of our Prophet, Muhammad.” However, he also said,

“There is nothing between us and the despots of Nigeria except jihad.” Boko Haram-controlled territory focused all attention on militancy and prized itself on seized military equipment. For a force committed to an Islamic way of life, it showed no interest in establishing civil institutions. It did not consolidate governance. Contrary to its raison d’etre, Boko Haram made little effort to institutionalize Islamic courts and schools, or to distribute humanitarian relief – because they had no agenda beyond violence.

In contrast, other African jihadi rulers of short-lived Shariah law states such as Al-Shabab in southern Somalia (2009-2012) and the JNIM In Northern Mali (2012-2013), made some efforts in this regard. This gained them some legitimacy in their area of control.

Political exclusivism aims to spur group violence. “Seeing the devil in others” is a necessary element to cement group cohesiveness against an outgroup.

It can be witnessed: in the master race Nazi doctrine against the Jewish people causing the holocaust; the Hindutva ideology causing the Indian Muslims ongoing genocide; in the Jewish notion of being the “chosen people” leading to the Palestinian occupation and ongoing genocide; and finally in the “true believers doctrine” of the TTP leading them to burn alive women teachers and kill school children.

Exclusivism compels Boko Haram to not only oppose the Sufi groups in Nigeria but also to commit violence against rival Salafis since it perceives them as a threat. They are all dangerous competitors for audiences.

Many Nigerian Salafis hold university degrees. They contend that Boko Haram’s opposition to Western-style education would retard Northern Muslims’ economic and political development. Mohammed Yusuf and his core followers declared that they could no longer trust Salafis who defended Western-style education or government service. After Yusuf, the next Boko Haram leader Abu Bakar Shekau amplified the violence through Takfir or by declaring other Muslims unbelievers. This justified the right to kill all other Muslims if they supported democracy, constitutionalism, or Western-style education.

The TTP in Pakistan bases its ideology on Pashtoonwali, where the tribe rules over religion. They have no moral foundation for a holier-than-thou attitude. However, they are very judgmental about the rest of Pakistan which sins differently than them. They object to practices of Sufism – especially the controversial music and dance element – and the Deobandi-Barelvi North Indian-originated Islamic ideology prevalent in the rest of Pakistan, especially in the province of Punjab. The popular culture which includes cinema, the television entertainment industry and the inclusion of women in public life, further serves as ammunition for TTP propaganda against the state and mainstream society.

An African proverb states, “The boy not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

Mohammad Yusuf was a poor boy in Christian-dominated northern Nigeria and Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud was a poor marginalized Pashtoon boy. They are burning down their village to feel its warmth.

Boko Haram was bent on challenging the Nigerian state for control of Northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram waged a guerrilla campaign in the Northeast, assassinating politicians and policemen, robbing banks, raiding police stations, and breaking into prisons. The TTP is doing the same thing in the former FATA zone in Pakistan. Neither is taking inspiration or instruction from the other.

In 2015 Boko Haram announced its merger with the Islamic State after suffering territorial losses. The TTP has similarly used tribal affiliations to enlist the support of the ruling Afghan Taliban across the border.

Both the TTP and Boko Haram peddle the false but powerful narrative that the Pakistani and Nigerian states willfully harm innocent Muslims. The existence of both these terror groups is pivoted on the depiction of the Pakistani and Nigerian states as tyrannical, ungodly institutions. This strawman argument justifies their war-mongering. It is important to understand that they are in the business of violence. If there is no casus belli, Boko Haram and the TTP become irrelevant.

Both the Nigerian and the Pakistani states have primarily engaged with these terror groups through military operations. This strategy has proven to be very costly for Pakistan and has only resulted in a pyrrhic victory. Now that the fog has been lifted from the smokescreen created by the TTP, Pakistan should re-strategize. Knowledge is power. Pakistan must strategically uproot the TTP by making it irrelevant. If we strike its pivot, we can snuff out the fire, which is the TTP.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at aliya1924@gmail.com