Good and reasonable as
the move is, we are of the opinion that the security agencies may lose out on
the real financiers of terrorists and their activities in Nigeria if they keep
looking down at the expense of looking ahead above the shoulders to see where
the funds are gathered from and distributed to for the sake of
prosecuting a what Islam term “holy war”.
Recently, the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN) through its Public Relations Officer in the 19
Northern States and Abuja Mr. Sunny Oibe made a startling revelation to the
effect that 90% of northern politicians are Boko Haram members. Instead of
analyzing the assertion in its proper perspectives many of us dismissed it with
a wave of the left hand. But has it not done on us now that there is more in
the disclosure than we can imagine as Boko Haram continues to widen both the
scope and impacts of its nefarious activities? Lodgments into bank accounts
associated with members of the group are usually in millions of naira if news
reports are facts. Recently, we were told that a politician paid substantial
amount of money to the group for what he claimed to be “purchase of ram”.
The
beaming of searchlights on big shorts’ accounts are good starting points as the
probability that these accounts could be used to launder money and finance
terrorism is relatively high.
Embassies
or foreign consulate accounts also pose higher risk in terrorism funding as
experience has shown. Banks and other financial institutions need to take note
of accounts where large currency transactions take place, especially if they
involve countries categorized as high risk, such as Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan,
Mauritania, Yemen, Sudan, and other nations associated with Islamic
fundamentalism. It is on record that some Nigerians are involved in
terror-related activities and are believed to have been trained in Pakistan, Yemen,
Mauritania, Mali, and so on.
Terrorism is a capital
intensive venture, involving extensive planning, organization, recruiting, training,
acquisition and provision of necessary technology, mobilization and deployment of
the terrorists and enticing financial compensation and convincing promise of a
place in paradise. Where do these terrorists get their funding from? Who are
the sponsors of Boko Haram? How do these monies get to Boko Haram? If there are
foreign sponsors, who are the local links and how do they get funds transferred
from abroad?
As CAN rightly reveal,
90% of northern politicians are involved in funding Boko Haram, directly or
indirectly. Providing the required funds for jihad or Al Jihad bi-al-Mal, is mandated by many verses of the Qur’an,
including chapter 61 verses 10-11, which says, “you, should strive for the cause
of Allah with your wealth and your lives”, and chapter 49 verse 15, implores, “The
(true) believers are only those who… strive with their wealth and their lives
for the cause of Allah”.
The legal justification
for financial jihad was reiterated and popularized by a Qatar-based Muslim
Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a lecture he delivered on May
4, 2002 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In that lecture, he emphasized that,
“collecting money for the mujahideen (jihad fighters) was not a
donation or a gift but a duty necessitated by the sacrifices they made for the
Muslim nation”. Shari’a financing is aimed at promoting the Ummah or “Community of the Believers” (ummaht al-mu’minin) – the Muslim world.
The basic goal of the
financiers of Boko Haram is to Islamize Nigeria and this is in total agreement
with the main aim of Boko Haram which
sees nothing good in the Nigeria state but bent on the proclamation of Islamic
nation or Umman in the territory
known as Nigeria.
Shari’a
finance
is a weapon in the arsenal of perpetrators of a conceived Islamic nation or Umman supremacy worldwide. Both the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which Nigeria was smuggled in as a
member and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) which is also doing everything to
commence operations in Nigeria operate on the principles prescribed by the
Muslim Brotherhood and in accordance with the tenets of the shari’a. The primary purpose of which is
to sustain “the growth and advancement of
the Islamic way if life”, maintained Nasser M. Suleiman.
The secret behind all
the frantic efforts made by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for the establishment of Islamic Banking in Nigeria is
perhaps to advance shari’a financing
and the coming Umman supremacy; to
take over the Nigeria economy; and Islamize Nigeria.
It was Osama bin Laden
who soon after the 9/11 called on Muslims all over the world to look for the
pillars of the enemy’s economy. “Strike the key pillars of the enemy again and
again and they will fall as one”. This instruction is today being carried out
around the world by Muslim fundamentalists.
Zakat,
we were made to believe, is to help the needy. But over the years Muslims have
found the practice of Zakat as a
channel through which to finance terrorism. According to Janine A. Clark in the
book, “Islam, Charity, And Activism:
Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen”, Zakat is used to support the middle
class, to strengthen its loyalty to the rulers, and to back their radical
ideology.
Muslim Brotherhood
spiritual leader, Yusuf al-Qaradawi also proclaims that “Declaring holy war is
an Islamic duty, and fighting is the Way of Allah for which Zakat must be spent” and in his 1999 publication,
Fiqh az-Zakat, al-Qaradawi he said,
“The most important form of jihah
today is serious, purposefully organized work to rebuild Islamic society and
state and to implement the Islamic way of life in the political, cultural and
economic domains. This is certainly most deserving of Zakat”.
Muslim jihadist-terror
groups such as Boko Haram are indeed prominent Zakat recipients. J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins in their
book, “Alms for Jihad: Charity and
terrorism in the Islamic World”, observed that when Zakat, which is obligatory to all Muslims, is given “in the path of
Allah,” it is given to fund jihad. There are seven broad categories of eligible
recipients: the poor, converts, wayfarers, those in bondage or in debt, those
committed to Allah for the spread and triumph of Islam, newcomers whose faith
is weak, and new converts to Islam “whose hearts have been reconciled.
“Moreover, Zakat may be used to
support those who administer it”, (emphasis
mine).
Revealing how charity
funds or Zakat are used Saudi Arabia’s
Secretary-General of the Official Muslim World League Koran Memorization
Commission was quoted by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen in their book, “The Cure for the Wahabbi Virus”, to have
said that, “The Prophet said, ‘He who equips a fighter – it is as if he himself
fought’. You lie in your bed, safe in your own home, and donate money and Allah
credits you with the rewards of a fighter. What is this? A privilege.”
Today, the Islamic
world is building thousands of mosques, Islamic centers, and Islamic studies
programmes in universities across Nigeria to advance Umman’s power and undermine western education and legal structures
and to replace them with the Shari’a and
Nigerians are looking the other way. There are more mosques and Islamic centers
springing up in all parts of western and eastern Nigeria now than ever before. Have
you ever wondered “why”?
Many states in Nigeria
today especially in the north and west have perfected state Zakat (and Sadaqat) as channels, probably, through which finances move to the
jihad fighters who they believe are prosecuting the “holy war”.
Recently, the Sokoto
Zakat and Endowment Committee was said to have disbursed N20 million to less
privileged persons in the state. This is a welcome development that deserves
commendation but for security reasons we are more concern with the sources of
such funds and the end uses of the Zakat money
than the moral and spiritual justifications which may both be detrimental to
Nigeria as a country.
Similar public and
private Zakat and or Sadaqat organizations exist in most
states of the federation using one ruse name or the other, or operating as a
non-governmental organization (NGO) but actually fronting the funding of
terrorism in the country. Bank accounts and other monetary transactions of such
bodies need to be properly scrutinized for both financial links/funding and
miscellaneous supports of terrorism activities in Nigeria or elsewhere.
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