BOKO HARAM

The emergence of 'Nigerian Taliban' who have demanded stricter application of religious laws and resulted in hundreds of deaths underlines the importance of how we impart historical education.

It is an unfortunate given that failures of the governance and judicial system is rampant in third world nations. Those are the root causes of problems.

These problems become exacerbated when historical baggage and historical fallacies go hand in hand. While society takes time to unburden itself of traditions and social mores through an evolutionary process, having unfounded beliefs in lies of history can break progress and result in blind violence as witnessed in Nigeria.

The 'Nigerian Taliban' apparently desire the 'pure Caliphate' as witnessed in the past. Fact is, nowhere in Muslim history was there ever a time that a Caliph 'lost' the support of people and resigned willingly allowing his opponent to become the ruler. This transition, the hallmark of modern governance, never took place - even during the most ideal times of Muslim history. The ruler had to either die, be killed or decapitated in order for a transition to occur. Despite the arrogant disregard of this glaring reality, we are told to believe that the rule of Caliphs was 'ideal'. Naturally since there is no room given for an objective assessment of the pros and cons of Caliph rule, one has to either accept everything or face emotional outbursts (at the very least).

The fact that people today so readily become inspired by a highly questionable system of governance reflects both the decadence in today's post-colonial systems as well as the stupidity of believing in the unsubstantiated lies of history without any questions asked. The repercussions of historical lies continue to be felt.

But what else can one expect from the Nigerian Islamic sect called 'Boko Haram', that is behind the violent demands. The meaning of 'Boko Haram' translates into 'Education is prohibited'.

Unlike 'Lays Chips', which are halal :)