|
Interview with Dr Baba Jibrin Adamu, Ph.D Engr - & United Nation (UN) Certificate on Global Terrorism & International Conflict Resolution, Crisis Management & ICT Expert, and author of a book titled: Effect of Global Terrorism & the Niger Delta Crisis
January 11, 2010, Abuja Nigeria
Question: As an engineer and expert on UN Global Terrorism & International Conflict Resolution Crisis Management - What is your reaction on US generalisation that Nigerians are potential terrorists?
Answer: It is obvious that the attempted terror attack by Faruk Umar Abdulmutallib raised great concerns for all Nigerian both within and in the Diaspora, and the US categorization of Nigerians as potential terrorists has created negative feelings and significant fears that other countries will adopt similar measures.
To simply subject over 140 million innocent and peace-loving Nigerians to racial profiling and discriminatory treatment at all airports and major transportation route of the world would not be right simply because every Nigerian deeply condemned and rejected the actions and beliefs of this tragically misguided would-be flight bomber Faruk. The inclusion of Nigeria into the Terrorists List would only cause more damage than benefit for example in today’s world, terrorists as well as their victims is represented in many nationalities of the world. Faruk Umar Abdulmutallib was reported to have been recruited in London, UK, and then travelled to Yemen for training. The September 11th of 2001 attacks, which were the most devastating terrorist acts in American and in the world history, killing approximately 3,000 people and property damages in millions of dollars and which was condemned by all Nigerians was the work of al-Qaeda ("the base") from Afghanistan. But of all those 19 men who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001, none of them were Afghans (fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon). None lived in Afghanistan (they lived in Hamburg, Germany). None trained in Afghanistan (they trained in Florida, USA). None went to flight school in Afghanistan (that training occurred in Minnesota, USA. In the aftermath of September 11, passengers from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt were not subjected to special treatment at the airports. Therefore, to perceive terrorism acts accurately, which is a pre-condition to combating it effectively; it is very necessary to recognise that terrorism is not committed by any other single type of nationality, demographic or social group, but by many diverse groups, sometimes by individuals, sometimes by groups such as al-Qaeda, drug-traffickers, by criminally-insane individuals and sometimes by rogue officials while engaged on government service. It is carried out in many names including religion, politics, freedom fighting, environment, racial supremacy, etc and even for mystical and doomsday objectives.
Question: What do you think are the goals and motivation of terrorism?
Answer: Ideology and motivation will influence the objectives of terrorist operations, especially regarding the casualty rate. Groups with secular ideologies and non-religious goals will often attempt highly selective and discriminate acts of violence to achieve a specific political aim. This often requires them to keep casualties at the minimum amount necessary to attain the objective. This is both to avoid a backlash that might severely damage the organization, and also maintain the appearance of a rational group that has legitimate grievances. By limiting their attacks they reduce the risk of undermining external political and economic support. Groups that comprise a "wing" of an insurgency, or are affiliated with aboveground, sometimes legitimate, political organizations often operate under these constraints. The tensions caused by balancing these considerations are often a prime factor in the development of splinter groups and internal factions within these organizations.
In contrast, religiously oriented and messianic groups typically attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. Because of the apocalyptic frame of reference they use, loss of life is irrelevant, and more casualties are better. Losses among their co-religionists are of little account, because such casualties will reap the benefits of the afterlife. Likewise, non-believers, whether they are the intended target or collateral damage, deserve death, and killing them may be considered a moral duty. The Kenyan bombing against the U.S. Embassy in 1998 inflicted casualties on the local inhabitants in proportion to U.S. personnel of over twenty to one killed, and an even greater disparity in the proportion of wounded (over 5000 Kenyans were wounded by the blast; 95% of total casualties were non-American ). Fear of backlash rarely concerns these groups, as it is often one of their goals to provoke overreaction by their enemies, and hopefully widen the conflict.
The type of target selected will often reflect motivations and ideologies. For groups professing secular political or social motivations, their targets are highly symbolic of authority; government offices, banks, national airlines, and multinational corporations with direct relation to the established order. Likewise, they conduct attacks on representative individuals whom they associate with economic exploitation, social injustice, or political repression. While religious groups also use much of this symbolism, there is a trend to connect it to greater physical devastation. There also is a tendency to add religiously affiliated individuals, such as missionaries, and religious activities, such as worship services, to the targeting equation.
A terrorist group commits acts of violence to
· Produce widespread fear and obtain worldwide, national, or local recognition for their cause by attracting the attention of the media;
· Harass, weaken, or embarrass government security forces so that the government overreacts and appears repressive;
· Steal or extort money and equipment, especially weapons and ammunition vital to the operation of their group;
· Destroy facilities or disrupt lines of communication in order to create doubt that the government can provide for and protect its citizens;
· Discourage foreign investments, tourism, or assistance programs that can affect the target country’s economy and support of the government in power;
· Influence government decisions, legislation, or other critical decisions;
· Free prisoners or satisfy vengeance;
· Turn the tide in a guerrilla war by forcing government security forces to concentrate their efforts in urban areas. This allows the terrorist group to establish itself among the local populace in rural areas.
Question: Why is terrorism constantly being linked with Islam?
Answer: If contemporary terrorism is to be accurately and thoroughly understood in a clinical and impartial fashion, it is necessary at the beginning to dispel one current political myth: Islamic fundamentalism in the context of terrorism, since a true Muslim who adheres to the fundamental tenets of Islam must view terrorism as a serious crime and a blasphemy. Islam not only forbids the killing of women, children and unarmed or surrendered combatants, but also forbids any form of suicide, the destruction of buildings, even the felling of a tree, if it has a single green leaf on it. Over one hundred thousand victims of terrorism in Algeria were Muslims, and several hundred thousand Muslim police officers, soldiers and individual, from all over the world including in Nigeria, are against terrorism and are directly engaged in fighting terrorism, and some have taken substantial casualties in so doing. Suicide is categorically prohibited in Islam no matter the reason.
The concept of Islam and terrorism certainly requires further clarification. It is important though to note a new turning point in linking terrorism with Islam started during an initial meeting held on August 11, 1988 (Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989), when al-Qaeda network, a terrorist organisation was formed with a base in Afghanistan with Osama bin Laden as the leader who confessed to be the main architect behind the terrorist events of 11th September 2001 and several other major terrorist acts.
However, in the circumstances of the bombing of the US World Trade Centre, the US Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dares Salaam, the terrorist acts of 11th September 2001 and many other terrorist acts in the world, ranging back several decades, in which some Muslims have been indicted or convicted reflect two facts: Firstly, that some terrorist acts are committed by persons who incidentally happen to be Muslims but their religion is not relevant to the terrorist act. Secondly, some Muslims commit terrorist acts, misusing, distorting and projecting the name of Islam. This differentiation is not always appreciated by some sectors of the media who tend to equate all terrorism by Muslims as so called fundamentalist Islam and under the banner of Jihad (holy struggle or war). This is entirely inaccurate. Yet other media sources automatically attribute Islam to any terrorists who happen to be ethnic Arabs or of Middle Eastern origin; a result of a widespread misconception that all Arabs are Muslims. This is however, incorrect as national and ethnic Arab populations include Muslims, Jews and Christians among their numbers.
A large number of Israeli Jews are ethnic Arabs. Other related widespread misconceptions are that Iranians or Persians are also Arabs, which is incorrect and that anti-Semitism is hatred of Jews, when in fact it is hatred for the many different Semitic races, including Jews and Arabs. One of the results of these misconceptions has been to wrongly simplify some conflicts and boil them down to facile slogans such as Islam versus the West, and Islam equals Jihad. It should further be noted that the word often incorrectly attached to Islamic terrorism is Jihad (Arabic - from Jihd / Jihada - to make an effort or struggle). The word means, by translation and theological tradition, a holy struggle, especially spiritual, against evil, injustice or personal imperfection. It may be fulfilled in four ways; by using the heart, tongue, hand or sword. In contemporary use, except by terrorists, it denotes an effort against something either personally negative or detracting from the common social good, and is used mostly as a last resort. There are many such Jihads. For example: A Jihad on litter in order to clean up an area, or a Jihad on one’s self when encountering difficulties achieving a personal goal, such as studying. In simple terms, it can be considered as a self-motivating effort to do some good, underpinned with prayer.
Question: Can Nigeria be a terrorist’s Hot spot for al-Qaeda to recruit members?
Answer: Although such a portrait of the Nigerian situation may seem sensationalized, it is clear that as the dominant power in the entire West African region, the country will remain a major focus of extremism attention. Nigeria was also characterized by polarization of Muslims against Christians, one tribal group against another, class intolerance and political rivalry, joblessness and despair. In these conditions, Nigeria must be considered a country at serious risk of becoming a major new front for terrorism especially those that want to use those conditions for their selfish ends.
After the Maitatsine religious riots of the 1980s in Northern Nigeria, there have been more than 20 cases of ethno-religious conflagration in Nigeria resulting in more than 10,000 deaths and the destruction of properties worth billions of Naira including the recent Boko Haram crises. Another often mentioned and instinctively convincing reason is the ever-continuing economic crises and extreme poverty afflicting the majority of the population of the world, especially the third world countries, which daily creates the gravest imaginable and most disgraceful human suffering. This is a breeding ground for discontent and intolerance from which terrorism can spring, especially as terrorist group exploit these extreme forms of human suffering, ignorance, despair and poverty to spread their doctrine and recruit members. Some of these conditions unfortunately exist in Nigeria today, especially in the oil-rich Niger Delta region and in some northern parts of Nigeria. Already, the United Nations (UN) has published reports of the formation of terrorists - drug traffickers’ nexus in Africa; and with Al-Qaeda under increased international pressure in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, as well as pressure on other terrorist groups around the world, Nigeria offers an ideal regrouping, recruiting and re - launching zone unless there is a concerted effort by the Government to put pre-emptive measures against these terrorist groups from operating.
That is why finally I want to say that there should be a concerted effort between the US Government and the Nigerian government and good people of Nigeria to work together in order to address these problems. Having said so, I welcome the invitation of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the father of Faruk Umar Abdulmutallib to appear before the US Senate Committee on Foreign relations on January 20, 2010 to testify before it. This would give the father the opportunity to correct the negative press to which Nigeria has been unfairly subjected to over the past few weeks. You would recalled that the father Mutallib was the first to alert the US embassy in Nigeria over his son’s weird behaviour, a heroic act by a good, peace-loving Nigerian parent who deserves commendation and whose reaction should only help to unite further the relationship between Nigeria and the United States in a concerted effort to fight terrorism, and not inclusion of Nigeria into a Terrorist List.
|
