Nigeria's top Islamic organisations have issued scathing criticism of Boko Haram, an alleged Muslim fundamentalist group pushing for outright execution of Shari`ah across Nigeria and working against Western legacies, especially the school system modelled after the British colonialists.
"Members of the Boko Haram do not represent Islam and are to be isolated by genuine Muslims," Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Secretary General Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite told IslamOnline.net.
Nearly 100 people were reportedly killed in clashes between the militants and security forces in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
The Nigerian authorities did not confirm the toll.
Residents of Gamboru-Ngala area said heavily armed militants stormed the town and went on rampage, burning a police headquarters, a church and a customs post in the early hours of Monday.
One resident, Shafiu Mohammed, said militants had overpowered police and customs officers in the town, on the border with Cameroon.
"The operation took them two hours. They left around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) without facing any resistance."
Fighting erupted at the weekend after Boko Haram militants attacked two police stations in Bauchi.
Clashes have also been recorded in Borno and Yobe - two neighbouring states bordering Chad and Cameroon – where members of the group were said to be heavily armed.
Authorities put the death toll in the weekend clashes at 65.
Boko Haram, which some describe as Nigerian Taliban, emerged in 2004 when it set up a base in Kanamma village in Yobe, on the border with Niger.
It then started attacking police outposts and killing police officers.
The group's membership is reportedly drawn from university dropouts.
Un-Islamic
Jamaiyyatu Nasrul-Islam (JNI) issued similar condemnation of the attack, insisting they were not motivated by "genuine intention" to propagate Islam.
"Where is it written in the Qur’an that you should kill people to advance your own cause?" Justice Abdul Kadir Orire, a retired Grand Khadi of the Kwara State Shari`ah Court, told the IOL
"As far as the Jamaiyyatu Nasrul-Islam is concerned, these people are a persona non grata and linking them with Islam is not only unfair, but mischievous."
Nigeria, one of the world's most religiously committed nations, consists of thirty states, with Christians predominate in the coastal south and Muslims in the north.
Twelve northern states apply Shari`ah in the officially secular Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Conference of Islamic Organisations (CIO), an umbrella body for all Muslim organisations in Nigeria, also denounced the militants' attacks.
"This latest attack is condemnable and has no basis whatsoever in Islam," Abdullahi Shuaib, coordinator of the CIO, told IOL.
"No Muslim should condone this," he stressed.
"This group is not known to us and its ideology of wanting to spread Shari`ah in all of Nigeria with violence as the main tool is unacceptable," asserted the Muslim leader.
Shuaib underlined that while the CIO believes it is the yearnings of all Muslims to live in accordance with Shari`ah, it condemns the action of this group.
"This is a multi-religious society and Islam does not allow you to force your doctrine on others," he maintained.
Muslims make up 55 percent of the population, Christians 40 percent and five percent atheists.
However, other estimates say Muslims make up some 65 percent of the total populace.
The CIO coordinator said this kind of religious violence is not new, citing the Maitazini group which claimed to be fighting the course of Islam.
"They also pursued the same agenda as Boko Haram. We are quick to note that their agenda is alien to genuine Islam."
In the mid 1990s, the Maitazinis were known for their extreme preaching and violent attacks on anybody opposed to their doctrine.
Shuaib insisted that such agenda is anything but Islamic.
"Members of this group should emulate the prophet by spreading religious only through wisdom and intellectualism.
"They should follow the precedence of the prophet by way of reasoning, wisdom and logic."
