Is this book Haram, Yusufiyya?

First of all there are already two claims of responsibility, which makes the whole thing suspect, since a group which masterminded an atrocity of this magnitude must have leaders speaking with the same voice. How come there are two claims each saying it is the genuine Boko Haram and the perpetrator? But looking back we […]

First of all there are already two claims of responsibility, which makes the whole thing suspect, since a group which masterminded an atrocity of this magnitude must have leaders speaking with the same voice. How come there are two claims each saying it is the genuine Boko Haram and the perpetrator? But looking back we must remember that the last time the group claimed responsibility for the New Year eve bombing in Abuja, even the police force dismissed the claim as bogus, in particular questioning the authenticity of the website.

Then we have to worry about the amazing literacy of the current claim, especially the one reportedly signed by one Abu Zaid. You can’t help but wonder, is this the largely rag-tag group of young Muslim men totally averse to western education that finally found an eloquent expression in English language? Just listen to Abu Zaid’s claim ‘Of recent, he (Ringim) has been going to places and making unguarded utterances to the effect that he will crush us in a number of days. This is unfortunate. We attacked his base, in order to show him that actions speak louder than words.’ Then he added ‘It may be new here but Muslims in other parts of the world, who have been trying to liberate Islam from the shackles of imperialism, have been sacrificing their lives through this means…. honestly it is not strange.’…. then he rounded up the claim with these words ‘We would speak on the details of the Mujahid (bomber) at the appropriate time. But the fact is that he is a martyr. The life and soul of a Muslim is useless, if not used for the sake of Allah.’

No one needs to be told that this surprising command of English is at variance with the Boko Haram image as we know it. People who knew Mohammed Yusuf, the group’s late founder and leader reported that he always had to have his Diploma-holding wife to read newspapers and magazines to him because he was totally illiterate in Western education. Nothing was ever said about his close lieutenants being in a position to read to him. So where did these eloquent English speakers emerge from? In many ways I agree with the Borno state governor Kashim Shettima when he said that what has been going on in Borno state was more likely the handiwork of politicians than the suspected religious sect.

When the governor offered them dialogue and they responded with a list of demands, which includes the implementation of the Sharia and his departure from office, it further proves that the original Boko Haram alias Yusufiyya wasn’t the one talking. In his lifetime, Mohammed Yusuf never campaigned for the implementation of the Sharia, probably knowing that most of his teachings were directly in opposition to Sharia as we know it. An insistence on the Sharia would have exposed the fallacy of Yusuf’s claim to the practice of true Islam, so he didn’t try it. In fact what is well-known is that Yusuf wanted his sect’s adherents to seclude themselves and live apart from other people in order to have the freedom to practice their sect’s interpretation of Islam. The people who wrote to Governor Shettima only inserted the Sharia demand to give the issue some religious colouration, but it is obvious that it is the governor’s resignation that is their key demand.

The challenge before our security agencies is to broaden their search to include other possible mischief makers who will choose to use the Boko Haram tag to continue their murderous mission, knowing that fingers will never be pointed their way. At a time like this our police and intelligence agencies can’t afford to use tunnel-vision in their approach to unravelling the Boko Haram mystery. We know how much the police love open-and-shut cases. But from reading detective books, we have seen how much a little extra effort always shows how those open-and-shut cases end up more intricately than we imagined. In the end, it is always the least suspected that ends up the true villain.

A lot of this happens in real life too. And from high-profile atrocities like the September 11th to numerous other murderous crimes committed around the world in the name of militant Islam, we have seen how the diligent efforts by people who painstakingly dig up their facts always show that the true stories are not as their official versions suggest. So far our only clue to the fact that Boko Haram did Abuja 6/16 is that they have claimed the bombing. Websites claims even when they appear genuine do not prove a thing, until more concrete proof is found. In 2004 when so-called Al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula posted a website claim, claiming responsibility for the murder of American engineer Paul M Johnson, the website was named www.ansarnet.com. A radio talk show host by the name Jack Blood did domain search for the site and found out that the site had a physical address that read Suite 1333 North Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, Texas. So there, al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula turned out to be in the American Peninsula instead.

We must remember that the first bomb blast in Abuja’s history took place on October 1st last year and was claimed by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND. Indeed MEND actually forewarned of the blast before it took place. No one said anything about the federal government acceding to their requests up to now and their boss is still standing trial for the bombing in South Africa. Even they have a reason to strike again. So the crux of this piece is just to say that an unproven claim by an anonymous Boko Haram source doesn’t prove a thing. Already reporters are saying that the bomber wasn’t a suicide bomber at all, that he was actually struggling to get of the car, probably knowing how he timed his device, while the policeman was delaying him with instructions on where to park, and before he could extricate himself, the bomb detonated. So in the light of this, it doesn’t take a Boko Haram to plant a bomb in the car and disappear.  That was exactly what the October 1st bombers did.

This whole thing about portraying it as a suicide bombing will do nothing but worsen the increasing wave of Islamaphobia worldwide. Though the first set of suicide bombers in recorded history were the Japanese Kamikaze warriors of World War II, and these were followed by the Tamil Tiger rebels in the early seventies, a Time magazine report in 2002 actually stated that the first set of suicide bombers in the Muslim world struck late in 1993 ahead of the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Yet when you hear of suicide bombing today, the first image created is of a Muslim on a murderous mission. We must fight this negative propaganda by insisting on established proofs, not circumstancial evidences, otherwise we will all end up consumed by it.