Kano, Nigeria - Despite the fears of western intelligence agencies and the hopes of Islamic radicals such as Osama bin Laden, northern Nigeria's mainstream Muslim leaders believe the region's largely poor and conservative people are not ready for revolution.
An investigation found small numbers of radicals - the survivors of a short-lived armed revolt in 2004 and clerics trained and funded by hard-line Saudi mosques - intent on stirring up unrest among Nigeria's 60-million-strong Muslim population.
But despite the frustrations of life in Africa's most populous and often lawless country, calls such as bin Laden's demand on February 2003 that Nigerian Muslims rise up against their secular "apostate state", have gone unheeded.
Aminu Tashen-Ilimi, the alleged leader of the bloody but short-lived 2004 uprising by the self-styled "Nigerian Taliban", speaking in his hide-out in the northern city of Maiduguri, said that he was ready to take up arms again in an attempt to create an Islamic state.
More mainstream leaders, however, dismissed his threat as empty posturing in a region with a tradition for more tolerant strains of Islamic belief, despite recent outbreaks of violence and despite the controversial reintroduction of Sharia law since 1999.
"Any ideology that is not founded on intellectual discourse and which believes in the power of the sword and not dialogue is a false ideology because the Koran enjoins Muslims to call others to Islam with convincing proofs and not arms," Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara said.
Kabara is one of the leaders in the northern city of Kano of the Qadiriyya order of Sufi Islam, still the dominant sect among Nigerian Muslims despite the growing influence of mosques inspired and funded by adherents of Saudi Arabia's more politicised Wahabbi tradition.
"It is evident this new group (the 'Taliban') lacked convincing proofs to win the hearts of other Muslims which is why they tried to impose their baseless thoughts on society through arms," Kabara said.
For Kabara, the revolt was a result of the "poverty and injustice that pervade society and given their youthful exuberance and strong desires use religion to give vent to their frustrations.
"Most of them are undergraduates and students in our universities study under unimaginable hardship with an uncertain future as employment and job opportunities are hard to find," he said.
While the majority of northern Nigerians follow Kabara's Sufi brand of Sunni Islam, others have turned to Shiism and, especially since the Iranian revolution of 1979, campaign for an Islamic state on the model of that in Tehran.
Nevertheless, said Muhammad Turi of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, the violence espoused by the so-called Taliban is unacceptable.
"It is true that a Muslim must live under Islam but the Taliban need to expand their horizon and not be narrow-minded," he said.
"You first need to create awareness among other Muslims, to sensitise them of the need to establish an Islamic state. It is wrong to just take up arms and wage a war which will consume innocent lives," Turi added.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter the key to maintaining stability in a west African region prone to political unrest. Washington-based think tanks and US intelligence agencies have warned of the danger of violent Islamism destabilising the neighbourhood.
On the streets of Kano, however, most Muslims reject the message of the rebels.
"The Taliban and their thoughts are a slap on Islam and Muslims. No religion that is rooted in divine revelation will condone such reactionary thoughts," said 30-year-old banker Shehu Haido.
"Their ideas are laughable because how can you condemn a Muslim as an infidel simply because he does not believe in what you think is the true Islam?" demanded market trader Hamisu Ibrahim, 34.