Boko Haram Stigma haunts Muslims

Fleeing horror and death in their home country, many Nigerian Muslims in Cameroon are facing Boko Haram stigma, with suspicious residents persecuting them as “sympathizers” of the militant group.

“I feel threatened because I see what is happening in neighboring Nigeria,” sociologist Manga Pegui told Voice of America on Tuesday, March 10, adding that he feels threatened when he sees Nigerian Muslims.

“I see that carnage that Boko Haram has been inflicting on innocent people in Nigeria and in Cameroon and I see what Islamist extremists are doing in other countries,” he said.

Pegui’s reaction to Nigerian Muslims was similar to many Cameroonians who mistakenly think that Islam and Boko Haram are synonymous and do not trust Muslims.

Along with Pegui, Oumarou Ngomna, the traditional ruler of Kemzogo village on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, says he does not accept strangers who are Muslims because they have had a history of violence in Nigeria.

At the central mosque in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, French-born Muslim imam Rashid Abou Houdeyfa preaches peace.

Nigerian refugee Abdoulaye Diallo is one of those who attends the mosque after fleeing his hometown of Dikwa to get away from Boko Haram.

Yet, the situation was not much better in Yaounde, where he has been facing persecution in Cameroon by people who think he is a sympathizer of the Nigerian militant group.

Elias Yega is another Nigerian Christian who fled Boko Haram to face stigma and suspicion.
“They combine us together, both Muslims and Christians,” said Yega.
“But sometimes we have problems because we call them Boko Haram and they will arrest them and take to security people here.”

Tolerance

Seeing the growing persecution of Nigerian refugees, Cameroonian faith leaders have stepped up their message of tolerance.

“We have talked about something which is essential and we can do it. It is inter-religious dialogue,” Chieck Oumarou Ibrahim, a Muslim spokesperson in Yaoundé, said.

“We are joining ourselves with Christians and praying together. We are doing our best educating our children, our population in mosques and in churches to live in peace.”

Ibrahim added that Christian-Muslim cooperation would help overcome the stigma Nigerian Muslims face.

Christian Manuba, with the Catholic Church’s Ecumenical Service for Peace, shared a similar opinion, urging people to have compassion for the Nigerians who are in desperate circumstances.
“It is very, very deplorable. First of all the refugees have lost all of their livelihoods,” said Manuba.
“There is no other means of survival. They now depend on the goodwill of the host communities, perhaps of the host government.”

Boko Haram, a Hausa term meaning “Western education is sinful”, is loosely modeled on Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The militant group says it is fighting enemies who have wronged its members through violence, arrests or economic neglect and corruption.

More than 13,000 people are thought to have died since Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009.