We can’t defeat insurgents with guns –Islamic scholar

From TIMOTHY OLANREWAJU, Maiduguri

Amina and Zainab were both happy teenagers at Madagali, a serene town along Adamawa State with Borno, until some gun-wielding Boko Haram visited with terror late 2014, shot dead some residents and abducted scores of others including the two girls. The duo with others, were taken to the infamous Sambisa forest, hitherto Boko Haram’s major operational base where the insurgents planned and carried out terror attacks on more communities in the two states.

The duo later became messengers of death, forced by Boko Haram commanders to strap explosive devices on their frail bodies, ferried on motorcycles through the bushes to Maiduguri, Borno’s capital to scout for crowded areas and blow up themselves.

Boko Haram has stepped up suicide attacks in Maiduguri in recent times using mostly teenagers or youth bombers who many believe, have been brainwashed by the insurgents’ commanders that they would receive “heavenly reward” for carrying out terror acts to kill as many as their bombs could reach. At least, no fewer than 12 persons including the bombers have been killed from January this year till date.

In last Tuesday’s failed suicide attack, both Amina and Zainab were sent to detonate IEDs, targeting many people all for a fee of N200!

“It took us three days to come to Maiduguri on a motorcycle. We were directed by the sect members to detonate our explosive any where we saw any form of gathering. They gave us N200 each which they said we should use to buy food for ourselves. It took us three days to come to Maiduguri on a motorcycle. We were directed by Boko Haram to detonate our explosive any where we saw any form of gathering,” Amina who was arrested by the men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) after a botched suicide attack near the NNPC Depot in Maiduguri last Tuesday said.

While Zainab was gunned down by vigilant security personnel before detonating her IEDs, Amina rather refused and unstrapped her bomb, giving herself up to the security agents around.

“I was scared so I told them that I could not detonate mine. So they said if Zainab detonates her own, it will serve the purpose. They said if we press the button, the bomb would explode and we will automatically go to heaven,” she disclosed.

Why would someone believe that suicide mission and killing others will “automatically” land him or her in heaven? “It is indoctrination. Boko Haram’s first step after kidnapping people especially youths is to indoctrinate them (the hostages) in the weird ideology including suicide mission,” a retired security personnel who is conversant with the insurgents’ modus operandi explained.

Violent extremists including Boko Haram quote Qur’an verses on Jihad (holy war) to justify their indiscriminate attacks on innocent people making ordinary Muslims like the two girls without sufficient knowledge in Islamic learning confused and gullible, unable to reconcile their understanding of Islam as a “religion of peace” and terrorism by the insurgents, says the Centre for Democracy and Development’s training manual on Countering Violence Extremism. But then, does Islam support the use of innocent boys or girls as bombers with a promise to enter paradise? Many Islamic scholars in Borno maintained such assumption was anti-Islam.

“Islam totally condemns all forms of violence or terrorism and those indoctrinating the boys and girls or anybody for suicide mission or killing are not Muslims,” Islamic scholar and Director, El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology, Maiduguri, Malam Sani Idris El-Bulature told Sunday Sun. He said it was unlawful for any Muslim to take the life of another person.

“Prophet Muhammad even urged Muslims to live peacefully with themselves and others. The prophet said God will prefer a person losing everything in the world than to accept a Muslim killing an innocent person,” he explained further.

El-Bulature said killing of women or using women to kill others was also un-Islamic. “Women are not supposed to be killed even during war,” he added. He maintained that the Boko Haram ideology was contradictory to Islam, the teachings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad. Meanwhile, El-Balature urged the Federal Government to direct its energy towards fighting Boko Haram ideology by introducing insurgency as a subject in school curriculum. “We can’t win this war with guns alone. If you want to fight insurgency, you must also fight the ideology because this is what gave rise to the madness. Our children should know why Boko Haram is bad, why the ideology is evil,” he stated.

But Borno Commissioner of Police, Damian Chukwu said the occurrence of suicide bomb attacks in the state in recent times was a sign of desperation of Boko Haram. “It only underscores the fact that the end is at sight for Boko Haram insurgency. They are just desperate to get attention. It is a sign of weakness and we will soon overcome the challenge,” he said at a press briefing in Maiduguri.

Commandant, NSCDC Borno State, Abdullahi Mohammed urged the people to be more conscious and vigilant. “We should be alert to our security especially when we see somebody behaving strangely. Usually, suicide bombers behave somehow whenever they are looking for targets,” he explained. He also urged banks in the city to make more provision for ATM usage to de-congest queues while appealing to owners of petrol stations to cooperate with security agencies by dispensing their fuel to disallow congestion. He said his command had deployed more personnel in the city for surveillance.