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Lies or half-truths? : Boko Haram’s ideology from a social movement theory perspective

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Date
05/04/2022
Author
Omeni, Akali
Keywords
Social movement theory
Framing
Political opportunism
Islamic jurisprudence
Boko Haram
Ideology
BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc
JS Local government Municipal government
T-NDAS
MCC
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Abstract
Using Social Movement Theory (SMT) as a methodological framework and explicitly employing the core SMT concepts of political opportunism and framing, this paper seeks to examine Boko Haram’s use of discourse in activism. As a rarely employed research method within the Boko Haram literature, SMT holds explanatory power around the movement’s approach to transforming motivation potential into actual mobilization via frame resonance. Focusing on the application of framing within (interpreted) sermons, lectures and exhortations by both Muhammad Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau as former substantive leaders of Boko Haram, this paper unpacks the discourse of Boko Haram’s ideology. The paper shows that this ideology, which contrasts the softened core of the Salafist/Wahhabi doctrines from which Boko Haram broke away, relies on problematic interpretations of Qur’ānic exegesis and political thought as both relate to faith and governance in northern Nigeria. One policy recommendation to emerge from this study is that counter-narratives to Boko Haram’s ideology should highlight not just why but also how the group’s rhetoric employs lies and half-truths in an attempt to rationalize its activism; despite what appears to be an adherence to Qur’ānic exegesis, in making its claims.
Citation
Omeni , A 2022 , ' Lies or half-truths? Boko Haram’s ideology from a social movement theory perspective ' , African Security Review , vol. 31 , no. 2 , pp. 174-194 . https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2027253
Publication
African Security Review
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2027253
ISSN
1024-6029
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/25143

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