Nigerian Shiite Leader Says "Boko Haram Not Responsible for Pilgrimage Attack"

Boko Haram was not behind a suicide bombing that killed at least 21 people near Nigeria’s second city of Kano during a Shiite Muslim procession, according to a prominent Nigerian Shiite leader, the Premium Times reported.

On November 27, a male suicide bomber detonated his device during the procession from Kano to Zaria, a site of pilgrimage for Nigerian Shiite Muslims. The Nigerian militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack, which happened near the village of Dakasoye, south of Kano. In a statement released on November 28, the group warned that such attacks would continue “against Shia polytheists...until we cleanse the earth of their filth.”

But on Tuesday, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, the Shiite group that organized the procession, said the fundamentalist group was not responsible for the attack, despite its claims. “We know the names of...those contracted to commit the massacre, their identity is not hidden from us,” said Zakzaky in a statement. “We cannot be cowed by an imaginary Boko Haram tale. Let them tell it to the fools and the ignorant.”

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria also said that a second attacker was arrested before he could detonate his bomb. Zakzaky said the assailants in the procession attack belonged to the same group as those who have committed previous attacks on the Shiite movement, including an incident at a pro-Palestinian march in Zaria in July 2014, when 34 people were killed reportedly by military personnel. Three of Zakzaky’s sons were among the dead.

At the time, the Nigerian army’s public relations director said it was investigating the incident, but insisted the military was acting in self-defence after protesters shot at the soldiers.

Boko Haram espouses a fundamentalist interpretation of Sunni Islam and regards Shiite Muslims as heretics. The group has been blamed for attacks on Shiites in the past, including a suicide bombing in November 2014 at the Shiite festival of Ashura in Potiskum in Yobe state, northern Nigeria, that killed 20 people.

As well as Nigeria, Boko Haram has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Niger and Chad in recent months. However, the militants suffered a blow in November when the Cameroonian army claims it killed around 100 Boko Haram fighters and liberated some 900 hostages in an operation on the Cameroonian-Nigerian border.

Credit to Conor Gaffey

SENEGAL SET TO STOP TERRORISTS DISGUISING IN ISLAMIC DRESS

West African country may follow Chad and Cameroon in banning full-body cloak, saying decision is question of national security



Senegal is considering banning women from wearing the burqa, amid rising fears of Islamic extremism in the west African country.

The interior minister, Abdoulaye Daouda, said women would no longer be allowed to wear the Islamic dress, which leaves only the eyes exposed. Daouda said the decision was a question of national security and was designed to prevent terrorists from using the burqa as a disguise.

An estimated 92% of Senegal’s population is Muslim. Although the country has not suffered a terrorist attack recently, authorities are concerned that the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, based in north-eastern Nigeria, may be trying to extend its range. This month, police arrested five people suspected of having ties to Boko Haram as part of a nationwide crackdown.

Senegal is not alone in west Africa in banning the burqa. This year Cameroon and Chad, also with large Muslim populations, issued similar orders citing similar reasons. “Senegal is just following the trend,” said Martin Ewi, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

He said the ban, though difficult to enforce, had been reasonably effective in both countries. “You still have the villages and far corners of the country where people don’t always respect the ban,” he added.

However, the ban was not a foolproof solution, Ewi warned. Two days after Chad instituted a ban, two burqa-clad bombers blew themselves up in N’Djamena, killing at least 27 people including several police officers. “They deliberately wore the burqa to attract the attention of the police,” Ewi said.

The burqa ban has been the subject of debate within Senegal, with commentators struggling to balance the national security imperative with religious freedom. “Its imposition in Senegal will cause social instability … there is a delicate line between preventive measures and respect for individual freedoms,” said Khadim Mbacke, a Dakar-based researcher.

Mbaye Niang, a Muslim leader and member of parliament, said the new law was designed to protect Islam. “We should not allow someone to cover their entire body like terrorists do. This is a tradition of some countries but it has nothing to do with Islam,” he told the local newspaper Le Quotidien. The reason terrorists use this method was because they wanted to attack the religion, he added.

Farid Essack, a religious studies scholar at the University of Johannesburg, said that context was key and the justifications used in Muslim countries did not necessarily apply elsewhere.

“In some political contexts, I find [the banning of burqas] deeply disturbing and an extension of Islamaphobia. I don’t think that the Chadian response is a manifestation of Islamophobia,” he said. “Chad … has had several bombings, a number of them were seemingly perpetrated by [fully covered] men, and I don’t think that it is unreasonable, in that context, to insist people should not be completely veiled in public.”

Credited to Simon Allison