By Simeon Mpamugoh 

Boko Haram in Nigeria: an Offshoot of Maududi’s Islamic Ideology, Michael Ezra Diki, CGM Publications Nigeria, 2019, pp. 150

The appearance of Boko Haram  has been linked to the ideology of a journalist, Abu’Ala Maududi, which was transported to the Northern Nigerian either because the founding leaders of the region knowingly allowed it or out of ignorance permitted its entry into the region through the policies they pursued.

In the book, Boko Haram in Nigeria: an Offshoot of Maududi’s Islamic Ideology by Michael Ezra Dikki, one finds it as a cursor to the influence of religious indoctrination in the North and the manifestation of Boko Haram. The book, which was part of the author’s doctoral dissertation, espoused these influences, which contributed immensely to the facade, growth and increasing violence of Islamic sign in the Boko Haram phenomenon.

Chapter one introduces the subject to the reader. The author argues that Islam, radicalism or fundamentalism were targeted at the perceived Christian West and recently any culture that is not Islam.  He differentiates Christianity from Western culture and values: “Even nations and culture, non-Islamic religions in the global south who subscribe to Christian or Western values are considered contaminated by the western corrupted ways of life and similarly targeted by Islamic radicalism, militancy and fundamentalism.”

“The Northern Nigerian Islam,” is the thrust of chapter 2 in which the author establishes a fact of history that Nigeria is a habitat for the majority of Muslims, but could not ascertain if the religion has the majority in Nigeria. In Chapter 3, Dikki x-rays “Islamic Radicalism in Northern Nigeria,” and how Boko Haram brought it to the fore globally, though its manifestation has been evidently long before now. 

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The Maududians, the book highlights, came to the North through missionaries from the Middle and Far East, as well as Sudan. They accepted their interpretations of Islam, and scholarship trips to the Middle and Far East by Nigerian youths where they were exposed to Maududi’s arguments and its effect on the activities of Muslim Students Society. 

In trying to identify cases of religious militancy and fundamentalism, scholarly works quoted by the author suggested several reasons behind the rise of Boko Haram and Islamic radicalism or religious conflicts in Northern Nigeria. He divides them into fundamental; immediate causes and the predisposed factors.

While chapter four dwels on the “The Philosophy of Maududi and its Presence in Northern Nigeria”, chapter 5 settles the issue of  “Influence of Maududian Philosophy on Radical Islam and Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria.” But “Boko Haram Movement and How Its Militancy Reflects Maududian”  is the focus of Chapter 6 in which the author states 

The author states: “There are those who argue that the sect has links with the Maitatsine uprising in Kano. 

In the concluding chapter, “The Way Forward”, the author sums up what the book has done in chatting the relationship between theology or theological interpretation and Islamic fundamentalism or religious conflicts, as well as the emergence of Boko Haram.  It is recommended to students of history, philosophy and theology.