Boko Haram and the Fear of Islamic Extremism in Cameroon: Part 1 – Boko Haram’s Cameroon Connection

By Dibussi Tande

“Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism.… He was beginning to worry about Islamic extremists infiltrating Cameroon from Nigeria and making inroads through Cameroonian mosques.” Wikileaks

The wave of Christmas Day bombings in Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram, the extremist Islamist sect which has its base in North-eas Nigeria, has once again raised the specter of religious extremism gaining a foothold in Cameroon.

In fact, long before the Christmas Day bombings, Cameroonian political and religious authorities had began to publicly express their fears of a Boko Haram infiltration of Northern Cameroon, and the spread of its extremist, intolerant and violent ideology to cities as far south as Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital (in the Christian South), which has paradoxically been described as “the most important center of Islamic effervescence in Cameroon” (2), and a “fertile ground for the development of proselytism through a subtle process of grassroots Islamization.”(8) (See When the Periphery becomes the Center: New Islamic Dynamics in Douala-Cameroon by Gilbert L. Taguem Fah).

So what links, if any, exist concretely between Boko Haram and the Cameroonian Muslim community? Are the conditions that gave rise to the sect in Nigeria also present in Cameroon? Can the dominant brand of Islam practiced in Cameroon withstand the influence of Islamic extremism? Or, is Cameroon already fertile ground for the rise of extremist Islamic groups similar to Nigeria’s Boko Haram or the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) which operates in the Sahel countries (Mali, Niger, Mauritania)? To answer these questions, we must start with a quick look at Boko Haram and its ideology.

Continue reading this article on Scribbles from the Den.

Comments

[moncler jacken]

Like this blog ,the colour of the flame changes during the process from a dazzling white to a yellow-white, orange-yellow, blue and yellow, green, violet, and blue and green.thank you!

[Kuaté André]

Cameroon is very much preoccupied by the security at its borders and this is one of the major concerns of the national security council of our country. It is a sensitive issue that and no acts of terrorism will be allowed on our soil or its borders.
Working in tandem with Nigeria, the Boko Haram issue will be addressed promptly.

[limbekid]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16663693

[steroids profiles]

It is a sensitive issue that and no acts of terrorism will be allowed on our soil or its borders.