'Boko Haram' doesn't really mean 'Western education is a sin'

[LiberalElite]

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0506/Boko-Haram-doesn-t-really-mean-Western-education-is-a-sin?cmpid=editorpicks&google_editors_picks=true

What's the real meaning of "Boko Haram?" I've been wondering about this recently since news articles are constantly informing me (including ones on this website) that it means "Western education is a sin."

[Loudly]

1. It means Fraud Is Prohibited?

Did I read that article right?

[mike_c]

3. only in the islamic context that non-islamic education is fraudulent...

...if I understand the author correctly. It's the same refrain we hear from some christian fundamentalists to justify pulling their children from public schools, i.e. the instruction conflicts with their religious biases.

[pipoman]

4. Good thing Christian fundamentalists don't

Pull their children the way these monsters do...

[Igel]

5. That would be falling for the etymological fallacy.

A word must always mean what it's derivation means.


"Prevent" must, therefore, mean "go before." Which is what it still means in the KJV, which was archaic in 1611.

That's nonsense.

The word is claimed to derive from something like "fraud." Remember, "pacification" is derived from the Latin word for "peace" and should just mean "causing to be at peace."

Context, extension caused it to come to mean "non-Islamic education." Specifically British, but the point that it means *only* British education rings hollow. It's a reaction to non-native, non-Islamic education. It's hardly likely they'd find French education standards any better than British ones.

Left out is that it plays into what was happening in the north. The Hausa have had jihads, and had them fairly recently. Spreading the tribe and their religion in a militant fashion, fairly fundamentalist, and fairly aggressively when they could. They're recent to Nigeria, and their spread was met by the British. British was *the* non-Islamic education they fought against because it was wrong, not just "failing to be culturally sensitive."

In Niger it was French. Fundamentalists didn't like Italian education in Libya.

[mike_c]

2. someone in another thread responded "I know what harem means...."

Clearly, they don't. But ignorance rarely stops people from expressing vociferous opinions, LOL.