Boko Haram say they are fighting a Holy War.
Wall St. Journal 2 days ago.
But little attention has been paid to the group's(Boko Haram's) formal Arabic name: Jam'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-da'wa wal-Jihad. That roughly translates as "The Fellowship of the People of the Tradition for Preaching and Holy War." That's a lot less catchy than Boko Haram but significantly more revealing about the group and its mission. Far from being an aberration among Islamist terror groups, as some observers suggest, Boko Haram in its goals and methods is in fact all too representative.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303701304579549603782621352