By: M. Dinata *)
According to the SITE Intelligence monitoring service on Saturday, 7 March 2015, there was an audio message posted on Twitter, showed that Boko Haram has vow loyalty to ISIS. The voice came from that message known to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
The message came in Arabic language with english subtitles, “We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims … and will hear and obey in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and ease, and to endure being discriminated against, and not to dispute about rule with those in power, except in case of evident infidelity regarding that which there is a proof from Allah,” said the message. The Caliph on that message identified as Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Awad al-Qurashi, who is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State.
“Boko Haram joining the ISIS fold makes sense to both groups,” said Jacob Zenn, an expert on the terror group and is with the Jamestown Foundation. “Boko Haram will get legitimacy, which will help its recruiting, funding and logistics as it expands into (French-speaking) West Africa. It will also get guidance from ISIS in media warfare and propaganda. Previously Boko Haram was a sort of outcast in the global Jihadi community. Now it is perhaps ISIS’s biggest affiliate.”
At the other side, CIA officials doubts that two groups will have a good cooperation. The analyst said that eventhough they have a similar fundamentalist intepretations of Islam, but Boko Haram is very African and operates only in Africa’s territory. Whereas, ISIS leaders seeing Shekau as inferior, because ISIS’s Arab leadership and membership tends to be racist toward blacks.
*) The Author is Brunei Darussalam’s Contributor.
