BOKO HARAMISM AND JIHAD: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The Boko Haram terroristic activities that engulfed some northern Nigerian states since 2009, which resulted into the death of thousands of innocent people and displacement of many. This Boko Haram terroristic act has made many non-Muslim Nigerians to conceive the idea that terrorism is an Islamic value and Islam has ?bloody borders? as claimed by islamophobes. This is so due to the claims made by Boko Haram anonymous leaders that the acts are fulfillment of Islamic obligation. These misconceptions by non Muslim Nigerians and the misinterpretation of the orthodox Islamic teaching further widened the dichotomy that has been in existence between the North-Muslims and South-Christians in the country. The focus of this paper is to find the extent to which Boko Haramism is divergent from jihad through a comparative analysis of the two social phenomena (Jihad and Boko Haram). To achieve a clear comparison, some units of analysis are derived from the reviewed literature. The Units are as follows: Ethics of conduct, Mode of operation, Leadership, Anonymity and identity, and Tolerance and coexistence. Analyses in this paper are situated within the conceptual framework of Moral Panic.