Written By: Mohamed Abdifatah Mohamoud (Ameen Guuleed)
Al-Shabaab is the most powerful terrorist group in the region of horn of Africa and their core principle is to rule Somalia under the Islamic sharia low by their interpretations, since Al-Shabaab was found they ruled by intimidating and terrifying.
Every Somali authority’s priority is to eliminate Al-Shabaab since the election of president sheikh Sharif sheikh Ahmed.
Although Sharif succeeded in capturing more than 60 percent of the city from Al-Shabaab he didn’t do well in abstaining al-Shabaab from their malevolent desires of bombing and killing innocent people.
Despite the efforts to eliminate Al-Shabaab they were growing in terms of wealth and intelligence, now most of the people believe some of major government officials are in cooperate with the terrorist group and that gives Al-Shabaab an access to the government resources directly and indirectly,
Some of the government officials have direct link with al-Shabaab while some of them are holding potential posts in the government especially in the security and intelligence sectors, we can take an example as Muqtar Robow Abu Mansoor who was recently appointed as the minister of Endowment and Religious affairs, Abu Mansoor was the deputy leader of Al Shabab and once became the spokesperson of al-Shabaab.
The reason for this article is to understand what encourages someone to be part of those evil monsters? , Understanding this question will give us the clue about the Core principal of Al-Shabaab.
the main reason that encourages and convinces the youth to join them vulnerably is the ideology of excommunicating other fellow Muslims from Islam , which is the ground base principles that empower Al-Shabaab especially I will elucidate the ideology that forces someone to work for them which i believe it is the Wahhabism.
Wahhabism
In 1703 An Arabian Islamic preacher activist and reformer Mohammad Abdi Wahab was born in Najd central province of Saudi Arabia, he is considered as the eponymous founder of the Wahhabism movement which is the ground base ideology of all the Islamic terrorist groups in the world since Muhammad Ibnu-wahaab emerged from ‘NAJDI’ which is a place prophet Mohammad peace be upon him prophesized as a city of evil, narrated by Ibn ‘Umar: (The Prophet ﷺ) said, “O Allah! Bless our Sham and our Yemen.” People said, “Our Najd as well.” The Prophet ﷺ again said, “O Allah! Bless our Sham and Yemen.” They said again, “Our Najd as well.” On that the Prophet ﷺ said, “There will appear earthquakes and afflictions, and from there will come out the Horn of the Satan.” (Book #17, Hadith #147, Bukhari).
From the above hadith we can clearly understand that Najd is not a blessed city and it is the seal of misery and evil, the prophet peace be upon him called NAJD ‘QARNUSHAYTAN’ which translates as the horn of Satan.
Ibnu Wahab received his basic education from his father who was a great Islamic scholar, Ibn Abdul Wahab had encountered various excessive beliefs and practices associated with saint veneration and saint cults which was widely accepted in all the Islamic world.
Ibnu Wahab migrated from uyaynah to mecca at the early of his 20’s, he performed pilgrimage and later found out that all the people in mecca held beliefs contradicting and unpalatable to his teachings.
He immediately started preaching the mass and calling upon the people to fallow his religious revival (Taj-did), he declared as follows:
“I do not confirm to any particular sufi order, faqih, nor follow any of speculative theologian, not even such dignitaries or luminary as “ibnu kathir”, “imamuthabi” and many more. I summon you all to ALLAH and only him”
In the above statement Ibnu wahaab is repudiating the higher dignity and respect given to the great scholars and saints of Islam
Ibnu wahab’s call gradually attracted many people including the leader of uyaynah “Othman ibnu mu’ammar”
Mu’ammar and Ibnu wahaab agreed supporting each other in each one’s ambitious which were political expansion and religious revival expansion.
Later Ibnu wahaab was expelled from uyaynah by the order of Suleiman ibn Muhammad ibn Ghurayr the chief of Al-Hasa and Qatif, who held substantial influence in Najd.
After Ibnu wahaab was expelled form uyayanah he moved to ‘Daria’ where he became an ally with Ibnu Masood and he persuaded Ibnu Masood that he will help him conquer all the Arabian Peninsula by enforcing his Islamic revival and he will make him the king of the Arab if he grants him an oath that he will perform jihad against the unbelievers which he meant the Sufis.
He called the jihad against the ottoman empire and declared them as ‘kufar’ ie non-believers he said In Durar-saniya 9/291–292 ‘As for whoever does not takfir the mushkrikin from the Turkish State, and worshipers of graves, like the people of Mecca and others, from the worshipers of the salihin (referring to saints or awliya’), and turns away from oneness (taw-hid) of Allah to shirk (polytheism), and substitutes the Sunnah of His messenger with innovation, then he is a kafir like them, even if he dislikes other religions, and despises them, and loves Islam and the Muslims. For indeed those who do not make takfir on the mushrikin, has not affirmed the Qur’an, and indeed the Qur’an declares the mushrikin to be kuffar, and commands with takfir of them, and hostility to them and fighting them.
The above statement that I quoted from durar-alsaniya is what broke the back of the late Islamic empire of ottoman, and the main reasons for all the Islamic terrorist groups in the world like Da’esh and al-Shabaab, because all the terrorist groups refer the same statement to the Islamic governments and ummah.
All the teachings of Ibnu Wahab are taught in the mosques of our country to the young children and they will grow up believing that everyone who does not hold any similar belief as they hold is supposed to be killed and whoever who is among them that denounces what they belief is also same as the one whom they are fighting with which will obviously make them extremist and influences them to kill others at the course of just disagreeing with them.
12/April/1802 approximately 12 000 Wahabi army attacked the city of Karbala in Iraq under the rule of the Saudi ruler Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, this rail was conducted in retaliation against small attacks from Iraqi caravans going to hajj, this attack killed approximately 5 000 inhabitants and they plundered the tomb of Hussein ibn Ali (the grandson of prophet Muhamad pbuh) , this attack lasted more than 8 hours and later the Wahhabis left the city with around 4, 000 camels carrying plunder which included gold, money, pearls and Persian carpets, most of the historians call this attack genocide rather than a war.
The Wahhabis movement carried out such attacks against the local inhabitants for calling them unbelievers, monotheist and grave worshipers, today in our Islamic countries including Somalia we have various groups associated with the beliefs and the teachings of Ibnu wahaab and they are famous for uttering his some words to other Muslims, they call the Sufis ‘grave worshipers and monotheists now you can see all the Wahhabi scholars who have accepted the teachings of Ibnu wahaab are strong supporters of al-Shabaab and they call them the mujahidin.
So we cannot eliminate al-Shabaab by only fighting with them military but we have to fight with their principles and ideologies which is the reason of their so called jihad, all the books written by Muhammad ibnu wahab including the ones written by his students that spread the takfirism (Takfir is a radical Muslim who excommunicates other Muslims, or accuses them of apostasy) has to be banned from our country if and only if we hope peace from this evil movement called Wahhabism.