Sheikh Musa Cerantonio, may Allah protect him, answers questions regarding al- Jamaatu Ahlus- Sunnah lid- Dawati wal- Jihad, also knows as Boko Haram Q- As salamu alaykoum sheikh. What is your opinion on Boko Haram? Wa Alaykum Assalam, to begin with, it is not suitable to use the name Boko Haram as it is a name that the group never used for itself and was created in an attempt to slander them. The group is named al- Jamaatu Ahlus- Sunnah lid- Dawati wal- Jihad ( JASDJ) or Jamaat ahlus- Sunnah for short. What must first be understood is that the group existed for many years in peace and focused on educating the people. The group was formed in 1995 and was known then as Shabab Muslim Youth Organisation. In 2002 when the leader of the group left Nigeria to pursue further studies, the new leader established the new group under its new name and focused on bringing the Muslim areas of Nigeria under Islamic Law, an issue that many groups have been pushing for in the region. For seven years the group ran peacefully and attracted many followers which disturbed the Christian politicians in the south and so in 2009 the government decided to move against them. The first attack occurred when some brothers were transporting the body of a Muslim who had died for burial, and police stopped them and then shot at them in an unprovoked attack. The Christian army officers then began to attack all JASDJ centers unprovoked, something that the Muslim president at the time even admitted to, that it was the army who struck first without any provocation. The Muslim governor of the region admitted to attacking them first when he said: We have pre- empted the militants. Otherwise the situation would have been bad. Meaning, the government attacked first, then attacked even more in order to not make things bad... In the ensuing attacks, the army attacked the headquarters of the JASDJ leader and killed more than 100 JASDJ members, as well as executing civilians as was caught on video. The leader, Muhammad Yusuf was taken away and later the army said that he died in custody, meaning that they killed him as he was fine when they took him. Hundreds of other JASDJ members were killed in other cities, an all in all about 1,000 were killed in the violence. It was after these unprovoked attacks that JASDJ began to fight back against the munafiqeen and the kuffar. In 14 years not a single bullet was ever fired by the group, until they were attacked and slaughtered. Every Muslim should agree that in those years JASDJ had all rights to fight against the oppressors, and must admit that they were wronged before they ever wronged anyone else. Since then, Abubakar Shekau has led the group, and this is where the differences begin. The group fought against the kuffar who were led by a new Christian leader ( Goodluck Jonathan) and led jail breaks, something that we should have no problem with. They assassinated munafiq leaders, again something we should have no problem with. However, they also began to kidnap and kill what seemed by all means to be innocent Muslims, something which is clearly wrong. Due to the fact that the group has not made any statements on these attacks it is hard to speak about them, especially as it is commonly claimed that groups act in the name of Boko Haram and carry out robberies and attacks, even though they have nothing to do with JASDJ. If it is true that they did kill innocent Muslims or kidnap them then I condemn such actions strongly and they must abandon this at once and focus on fighting the kuffar and the munafiqeen. However, I cannot ( nor can any Muslim) support the kuffar against them. Of the many Nigerians I have spoken to, all of them are against the Christian governments war against JASDJ even though none of them actually support the group, as most of them are clear in stating that the government is using this war as an excuse to subjugate the Muslims and to take control over the Muslim areas. Therefore every Muslim must continue to support all Mujahideen in the region who fight the kafir government and apostates as well as investigating all matters thoroughly and guiding those who are upon error. Q- Assalamu alaikum. What is your opinion on this action of Boko Haram? Jazakallah Khair. Wa Alaykum Assalam, without having specified which action you are referring to I will assume that you mean the recent raid on the school in Chibok where it is said that approximately 200 girls where taken as prisoners by Jamaat Ahlus- Sunnah lid- Dawah wal- Jihad ( JASDJ), the group that is incorrectly called Boko Haram. Previously I had stated very clearly that it is not allowed to take any Muslim as a prisoner without right, and it is not allowed to take a Muslim as a slave. However, it must be emphasized that the school that was involved is a majority Christian school and it has been stated in the media that almost all of the girls are non- Muslims. The town of Chibok is itself a Christian town ( it is said to be 90% Christian), despite being located in the Muslim majority northern parts of Nigeria ( Arewa). It is one of the few small Christian majority towns in all of the north. Regarding the disbelievers who are part of the nation lead by Goodluck Jonathan the disbelieving criminal and head of Kufr in Western Africa then it is absolutely allowed to take them in warfare and their women may be taken and made to be slaves. Just as their men may be fought, so too their women and children may be taken as prisoners ( though they may not be killed unless they fight against us). From there they may be sold to others or kept by those who took them, they have the choice to do either of these. The fact that Islam allows taking the women of the disbelievers who fight us as prisoners and slaves is an undeniable part of Islam that was practiced by the Prophet and the Companions. Shaykh ash- Shanqiti said about slavery: The reason for slavery is disbelief and fighting against Allah and His Messenger. When Allah enables the Muslim Mujahideen who are offering their souls and their wealth, and fighting with all their strength and with what Allah has given them to make the word of Allah supreme over the disbelievers, then He makes them their property by means of slavery unless the ruler chooses to free them for nothing or for a ransom, if that serves the interests of the Muslims. [ Adwa’ al- Bayan 3/387] So the reality is that the Christians at war with Islam are the ones who have allowed this to occur, as they must know that when they choose to fight the believers that our Religion demands that we fight them back and as part of this we can and will take their women as prisoners and take them as slaves. If they wish to stop this then they must give up their war against the Muslims or else they must expect that we will fight back. The irony for the Christian crusaders is that JASDJ never killed nor even harmed a single Christian until they were attacked by the government in an unprovoked massacre in which their headquarters were destroyed, hundreds of its members were killed and innocent Muslim bystanders were seen in recorded video footage being summarily executed. They are reaping what they have sown by declaring war against the Ummah. As for any Muslim girls that are part of the group then they must be freed and cannot be harmed nor taken into slavery by the group. It may be that in targeting the Christian town and Christian school that there are a few Muslims among them who lived there as a minority, and it seems from news reports that there are indeed a few Muslim girls ( approximately ten or so), and the group is not fully responsible for this as they should not have been brought to live in the Christian town by their families, and JASDJ cannot be said to be at fault for not asking the religion of each girl as it was known to them to be a Christian town. Similar events happened at the time of the Prophet (SAW) when non- Muslim towns were attacked and a few Muslims happened to be living among them and were killed in the raids on the towns. Q- Opinions on the Boko Haram situation going on right now with these captured school kids? In addition to my other answers it must be made clear that the leader of JASDJ, Abu Bakr Shekau, stated recently in a command to his group that it is NOT allowed to kill the women of the disbelievers, and this is what we are taught in Islam. He added also that it is allowed to take the disbelieving women as slaves, as shown below this is also from Islam. He did not comment on the possibility of some of the girls being Muslims, however the fact that he specified that it is disbelieving women that may be taken as slaves as opposed to all women shows that he has never stated anything suggesting that the group is targeting Muslim women, nor has the group ever been known to take Muslim women as slaves. Therefore we hope that if there are ten or so Muslims among the 200 taken that they will be freed and kept safe as soon as they are identified as being our sisters.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 05:21:48 +0000
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