Shekau: I am alive

Still smarting from the appointment of a new leader for his murderous Boko Haram militant sect by Islamic State, ISIS, Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video in which he promised not to attack Muslims, but promised hell for the rest of the world.

One of the reasons ISIS appointed a new leader for Boko Haram, according to analysts, was because of the undiscriminating attacks on Muslims and Christians by the Shekau led group.

“We do not need to kill our Muslim brethren. We kill unbelievers. We don’t fight anybody except those that God fights. We don’t declare as apostate except he that God has declared apostate. We are on our resolve by God’s leave to follow the book and tradition based on the understanding of pious predecessors,” Shekau said in the new 24 minutes video, obviously meant to disabuse the minds of leaders of ISIS about the accusation against him.

The Boko Haram leader then went on ranting about his plans to attack President  Muhammadu Buhari.

In the video which was probably shot in Sambisa forest, another man who was masked, apparently a member of   Shekau’s faction of Boko Haram, also pointedly informed ISIS leader, Abubakar al-Baghdadi, that his group will not follow the leader he appointed.

While complaining that ISIS has not responded to the various communications to its from Boko Haram, he said there are other issues which are not suitable for broadcast in the video message.

Such issues, he said will be discussed with the ISIS leader whenever he is able to get a secure communications line to him.

See excerpts of the Message below as translated by Daily Trust newspaper

“We do not need to kill our Muslim brethren. We kill unbelievers. We don’t fight anybody except those that God fights. We don’t declare as apostate except he that God has declared apostate. We are on our resolve by God’s leave to follow the book and tradition based on the understanding of pious predecessors.

“O our scholars, o our respected scholars be patient, patience after patience, by the leave of the Most High God.

“O you non-believers, die in your rage. We shall fight you. We shall humiliate America and Nigeria. We believe in the verse of our lord. ‘They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance. And if they fight you, they will show you their backs; then they will not be aided.’(Q 3:111)

“And our lord said (Q, 29 41) ‘The example of those who take allies other than Allah is like that of the spider who takes a home. And indeed, the weakest of homes is the home of the spider, if they only knew.’”

“O you who want me dead, if my time come, I will die by the leave of God the most high: ‘And it is not [possible] for one to die except by permission of Allah at a decree determined. And whoever desires the reward of this world – We will give him thereof; and whoever desires the reward of the Hereafter – We will give him thereof. And we will reward the grateful.’(Q3:145)”

“I am son of Muhammad before I say father of Muhammad Abubakar of Shekau leader of the people committed to tradition for preaching and jihad, I came out by the leave of God not only for Nigeria but for the whole world. Die in your rage, o you disbelievers. Glad tidings to you o, Muslim brethren. We, by the leave of God the Most High, will fight the non-believers until we see that God’s word is the most high. This is what we wish to talk about by the leave of God the Most High.

“Oh, Buhari die in your rage. I am alive.”

Excerpt of what the masked man who spoke in most of the video said:

“All praise is due to Allah. Peace be upon you our Muslim brethren. This is a message from the troops of Jama’atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad in West Africa of the Islamic State to our fellow jihadis all around the world, especially the leader of the believers Abubakar Al-Baghdadi, may God protect him. Indeed, message has reached us in news channels about a new leadership. To that we say, the man you have installed is not on the authentic path. We have heard things that have contravened the teaching of the Ahlis Sunnah Wal Jama’ah. So we cannot follow him.

After that, our leader, Asshakawi, sent you different massages up to 8 explaining to you that these people that break away from us do not follow authentic creed, but creed of irja’i. Then you asked him what is the meaning of irja’i. Then he sent you a message explaining to you the meaning of Irja’i. You didn’t say anything. You kept quiet.

“Then before this happened we informed you in the message we sent to you that a people have broken away from us asking to do something so that there will not be problem later. That was why we sent a message to you early. You didn’t do anything about it and didn’t give us any reply.

“Among the messages we sent to you, there were a lot of questions, but didn’t get an answer to any of them. So, we just heard that story through the media and your message. That is why we are saying we are with our Imam, Imam Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bn Muhammad Ashekawi, may Allah protect him.

“After that there are several other things whose explanations are not suitable for this medium because those things require secrecy. Therefore, we are saying, we have not withdrawn our allegiance to the Khalif. We are with our allegiance. However, we will not follow the person whose creed is not that of the people committed to sunnah and the mainstream. And hence we will not allow a messenger between us and the Khalif because it’s the messengers that spoilt the issue till when God decree our meeting with the Khalif and we believe that what he is doing is from the Khalif or we get an audio message that we are sure is from the khalif that is where we will agree. Otherwise, we will not agree to work with those messengers of the first. That is what we said.

“ And when we get the opportunity to meet of a live audio message, that is when we will explain certain secret issues that are not good to be explained in this type of (medium) to the world. But there are a lot of secrets that we are hoping the Khalif and those near him do not know the secrets.

“Our second message to the human idols, the infidels and the apostates, especially the idols of West Africa. Do not boast about what happened between us and our brethren. This  kind of things will not be strange to us in Islamic religion. Differences do occur. This type of difference is not a new thing. Even if you are happy, soon God will mend our relationship with our brethren, and you should die with your anguish by God’s will.

“And we are saying, o you the human idols of the world, especially, the idols of West Africa, we are giving you glad tidings of what will make you sad. And you will see, soon you will see by the leave of God the most high what you will not expect its happening in your Nigeria, in your Cameroon, your Chad, your Niger and your Africa entirely. Especially, Buratain in Nigeria and your Kukasheka. Kukasheka is the one speaking for the army or what? Buratai, you are their leader, you are the one plotting bad things and lies? Okay, wait for what will happen to you, soon. Wait, you will see God willing. It is not by our power, but the power of God.

“So we are telling you, o you Kukasheka and your Buratai with all Nigerian soldiers and all world soldiers, our coming out today is to fight the world, not just Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad of Africa alone. We have come out to fight the world. Hear well. We are informing that the war has just started today. Hear well. Die with your anguish. And you should listen. O you big human idol that is called Buhari, wait, you will soon see us in your house. Very soon you will see us in the middle of your house. It’s God that will do it, not us. Don’t say we can’t. God will do it. With all the securities that you rely on, we only rely on God. Your security are your confidence, your soldiers that you.. The weapons we are not relying on them. We rely on God. God is our strength. You will see. You will be surprised. You will see us in the middle of your house. And listen o you all the human idols of Nigeria, very soon within these days you will see us in your capital city that you call Abuja. You will see us in it very soon. You will see us in your Abuja. We will crush unbelief. We will burn your flag of disbelief with green white green. We will replace it with black flag on which is written in white colour there is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God. We will put that flag in place of that your flag of disbelief. Under this flag work will be done for God the most high. God’s law will be enforced. We will demolish all signs of disbelief.