The failed Christmas Day airline bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,Yemeni-trained son of an elite Nigerian family,brought attention to many different domestic policy issues; airline security, homeland security, and whether or not to try terrorists in a civilian court. None of these discussions, however, fully addressed the root of the problem: religious conflict and a growing trend of Islamic radicalization in Nigeria.
Nigeriais a federal republic with executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government overseeing 36 states has the largest population in Africa. Although it has vast oil resources, corruption, mismanagement, and political instability has led to the enrichment of an elite few while nearly 70% of the 150 million inhabitants live in abject poverty. The country is divided almost evenly between a predominately Muslim northern region and a predominately Christian southern region. There is constant tension between these two religious groups that often erupts into violence. Most recently, in January, more than 300 people-the majority of which were from the Muslim Hausa-Fulani community- were killed by religious violence in the volatile central city of Jos. In March, a reprisal attack against several Christian villages was carried out by the Muslim Hausa-Fulani community resulting in approximately 500 deaths. Since 1999, there have been an estimated 12,000 deaths due to inter-religious conflict.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommend that Nigeria be designated a country of particular concern for the second straight year in 2010 due to this religious violence and growing concerns of Islamic radicalism in the northern region. For example, since 1999, 12 northern Nigerian states have established or announced plans to establish sharia law criminal code. Among other human rights violations, these laws often approve of punishments such as stoning, flogging, and limb amputation. In some states, Muslims are forced to submit to this code even if they prefer civil courts. Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, said if left unchecked the sharia system could transform Nigeria into a center for Islamic extremism.
For most Muslim congregations in Nigeria the desire to remedy the country's extremely poor social development statistics, such as the high maternal death rate and enfant malnutrition, is a peaceful one. A few groups, however, such as the Boko Haram and the Kato Kalo, seek to destroy the government and implement a harsh form of sharia law throughout Nigeria to deal with these injustices. In July 2009 for instance, the Boko Haram responded to the arrests of several of their members by attacking police in the northern region. By some estimates the ensuing violence resulted in nearly 2,000 deaths. John Campbell, a senior fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, points out that "Nigerian security authorities have long been concerned about the potential of al-Qaeda or other jihadist Islamic radicals exploiting these [poor developmental] realities to advance their agendas." Some of the violent extremists, like members of the Boko Haram and Abdulmutallab, come from the wealthy middle class, and reject the ill-gotten wealth of their families for a reaction against Nigerian society and government.
It is unlikely that the father of the next Islamic radical threat to the U.S. will come to the relevant U.S. embassy warning that his son had been spending time with Yemeni extremists as the father of Abdulmutallab did. We need to be more knowledgeable of the role of religion as a motive for action, more competent in intergovernmental cooperation, and more proactive in preventing future attacks and threats. Misunderstanding or ignoring the nature of the threat will not help us fend off future terrorist attacks.
