“Allah has granted us success in Gwoza because we have risen to do Allah’s work.” Muslim leaders in the West insist that Shekau, despite his anxiousness to do Allah’s will, is actually a misunderstander of Islam, but they never quite get around to explaining exactly how he is misunderstanding Islam, or what they’re doing to prevent others from misunderstanding Islam in the same way.
“Boko Haram leader says ruling Nigerian town by Islamic law,” by Isaac Abrak, Reuters, August 25, 2014 (thanks to Kenneth):
ABUJA (Reuters) – The leader of Nigeria’s Islamist group Boko Haram said his fighters were now ruling the captured northeastern town of Gwoza “by Islamic law”, in the first video to state a territorial claim in more than five years of violent insurrection.
The Nigerian military was quoted in local press as denying that Boko Haram was in control of the town, although security sources and some witnesses said police and military there had been pushed out.
Abubakar Shekau’s videoed speeches, often as chilling for a rambling incoherence as for any message they contain, have become a regular feature of the militant leader’s bid to project himself as public enemy number one in Africa’s biggest economy.
His forces have killed thousands since launching an uprising in 2009, and are seen as the biggest security threat to the continent’s leading energy producer.
In the latest one released through his network late on Sunday, the militant who says he is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, said his forces were now in control of the hilly border town of Gwoza, near the frontier with Cameroon, after more than a week of fighting there.
“Allah has granted us success in Gwoza because we have risen to do Allah’s work,” Shekau says, reading out a statement off a notebook, with two masked gunmen on each side of him and three four wheel drive vehicles behind him in thinly forested bush.
“Allah commands us to rule Gwoza by Islamic law. In fact, he commands us to rule the rest of the world, not only Nigeria, and now we have started.”
Nigerian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Local newspaper ThisDay quoted Major-General Chris Olukolade as saying the claim Boko Haram controls Gwoza was “false and empty”.
The video includes footage of the attack on Gwoza, which appears to show hundreds of jihadists mounting what is alleged to be an attack on Gwoza, backed by armored personal carriers and pick-up trucks with mounted machine guns.
They unload salvos of gunfire all over the town from trucks and on foot. The fighters are all armed with AK-47s or rocket propelled grenades, some in military uniform, others in civilian clothes. Many of them walk casually as they take over the town.
They also fire into the hills at what appear to be fleeing security forces and civilians, and they help themselves to weapons and ammunition seized from security forces. It ends with scenes of executing captives in pre-dug mass graves, some of them beaten to death with spades.
Ever since Sunni jihadists in Syria and Iraq declared the area they control “Islamic state” in June, the appeal of making territorial claims by Islamist groups has been enhanced.
Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said on Sunday that 35 policemen were missing after an attack on a mobile police training camp in Gwoza.
Beagle says
“Muslim leaders in the West insist that Shekau, despite his anxiousness to do Allah’s will, is actually a misunderstander of Islam, but they never quite get around to explaining exactly how he is misunderstanding Islam, or what they’re doing to prevent others from misunderstanding Islam in the same way.” — RS
Timing I think, and nothing of course. Muslim leaders in the West are concerned that such behavior will wake us up to the threat enough to do something significant about the problem, limits or an end to Muslim hijrah (immigration for conquest), things like that. They believe in the Meccan phase of conquest, while Boko Haram is in full Medina and the “rightly-guided caliphs.”
Yeah, I have no idea why they’d be worried either. Not much evidence of anyone in power waking up. The few times brave politicians have come forward the full weight of government, other politicians, media, and education has come down to stamp it out. One minor preacher in Gainesville, FL got personal attention from the Department of Defense when he dared to think about defiling Islam’s “holy” book.
We’ve come a long way (backwards) since this:
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=6263
Nothing to worry about Nihad, Honest Ibe, Cyrus, the rest of you.
Jay Boo says
Muslims wake up!
False prophet Muhammad’s Allah commands no one.
More proof that Muhammad was not a prophet
Salah says
“It ends with scenes of executing captives in pre-dug mass graves”
Sounds familiar!
“Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka’b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.”
Sira (Biography of the Prophet) by Ibn Hisham 241 السيرة النبوية لإبن هشام
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/12/perfect-man-of-islam.html
http://islamforbids.com says
Well at least there seems to be someone for the west to capitulate to directly .
gravenimage says
“Allah commands us to rule Gwoza by Islamic law. In fact, he commands us to rule the rest of the world, not only Nigeria, and now we have started.”
……………………………..
And remember that Gwoza, as a town in northern Nigeria, was *already* under Shari’ah law, with its citizens subject to flogging, amputation, and stonings.
But this *still* wasn’t Islamic enough for the pious thugs of Boko Haram, as these penalties were not imposed often enough.
Then there is the issue of power: every Jihadist wants to be the one doing the imposing. And why not? In islam, the only one sanctioned by “Allah” to rule is—since democracy and even systems like monarchy are Haram—is the most vicious warlord.
And Boko Haram is establishing a Caliphate:
“Nigeria: Boko Haram top dog says seized town ‘part of Islamic caliphate’”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/nigeria-boko-haram-top-dog-says-seized-town-part-of-islamic-caliphate
If—God forbid—this Caliphate bumps up against the Caliphate of the Islamic State in what was once Syria and Iraq, what then? Will they join together in “harmonious” oppression and savagery, or will their be a Jihad of Caliphate against Caliphate?
Probably the latter—but *hell on earth*, in any case.
John C. Barile says
I wonder if and when Shekau–demented, deranged as he is–will proclaim that he is caliph? I mean, otherwise he could be nominally under the mantle of Khalifah Ibrahim al-Baghdadi.
enwhitenment says
Life is like a marathon and he who sets out fast and attempts to set the pace will rarely win the race.
Shekau will soon be killed by one of his own in a power struggle.
It will not be the end of bozo haram but it will be the end of shekau.