Shettima: Misinterpreting Quran among causes of Boko Haram

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State yesterday identified misinterpretation of the holy Qur’an as the major cause of the campaign of violence being perpetrated by Boko Haram insurgents, noting that the violent campaigns with attendant loss of lives and destruction of property lack any place in Islam.

Shettima spoke while receiving winners and officials of the Board for Qur’anic Education who represented the state in the 2004 national Qur’anic recitation competition held in Dutse, Jigawa State recently.

He added that the insurgents give negative interpretation of the Qur’an and Islam, which they wrongly use to unleash terror on citizens.

“Distorted

translation

of the holy book by the insurgents landed us in this mess, if we had good understanding of Islam we would have been in a better place. There is no room for extremism in Islam. We need to go back to Islam as practised by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) when Islam encouraged Muslims, Jews and Christians to live in peace with one another”, the governor said.

“We are presently in the days where some lunatics claiming to be crusaders of Islam are killing innocent people, burning mosques and churches. It is bad interpretation of the holy book by the insurgents that caused all this”, he added.

In another development, Shettima yesterday received the report of the special emergency relief committee set up after the Giwa barracks attack last month and promised to look into its recommendations.