Religious reproach towards extreme ideologies and violent crime in the society

Abstract

Every county of the world is grappling with one or two challenges. These challenges include but not limited to; hunger and starvation, unemployment, under-unemployment, poverty, inflation, insecurity of lives and property, injustice, corruption, systemic problems and violent crimes among dissenting groups to mention but a few. Similarly, the aftermath of September 11 attack on World Trade Centre in United State of America, the incessant war in the middle east, the rise of Arab Spring and the eventual death of Mu’ammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi in Libya to mention but a few, has led to the rise of religious extremist groups all over the world. We have the AlShabab, Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), The Islamic State of Iraq and Lavant (ISIL) also known as Daesh from (al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil Iraq wa al-Sham) also known as, The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the White Supremacist groups to mention but a few. These groups are violently inclined and their activities has led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people and destructions of both public and private institution and properties. Almost all developing countries of the world are grappling with the activities of these extremist groups. Kinetic approaches have been the major method in which countries are fighting these groups. Nigeria as a country is not excluded from this extremist groups. The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), Jamāʿat Ahl al-Sunnah li-l-Daʿawah wa al-Jihād “Association of the People of the Sunnah for Preaching and Jihād” popularly known as Boko-Haram are the famous extremist group in the country since early 2009. Successive government is investing massively on war Arsenals to fight these groups despite meagre resources and other internal challenges. The Nigeria Army, Navy and Air Force personnel saddled with the responsibility of protecting the country from both internal and external insecurity, is losing men in the battle field on monthly basis. This paper, is qualitative in method, it is main objective is to examine the religious reproach on extremism, violent crime and insecurity. It x-rays basically, the Islamic maxims on extreme ideology and violent crime in society. This paper equally, appraises the counter narrative programme introduced by the Nigerian Army to fight insurgence in the Northeast of the country. This paper recommended that, there is need for aggressive sanitization among Muslim scholars in the country on how to assist the men of the military to counter the ideology of the extremist groups because Islam is a total way of life which means peace and equally stand for peace. It is a religion that advocated for peaceful coexistence among people and equally encourages dialogue whenever there is conflict. The war against insurgence did not start in the battlefield but in the pulpit. This is why the kinetic approach hasn’t been successful