Mujahideen Is Happy To Kill In The Name of God: The Testimony Of Abdulmutallab

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab  the infamous   Nigerian terrorist  also known as the “underwear bomber”  who tried to bomb a  Northwest Airlines flight  on Christmas day in  2009, which would have led to the mass murder of 289 persons on board  the flight and possibly hundreds more  on the ground  had  the plane crashed in built-up areas,  was finally  sentenced to life in jail on the 17^th of February.  For a depraved and bloodthirsty terrorist such as Abdulmuttalab whose unsuccessful attempt to bomb the Northwest Airlines flight would have snuffed out the lives of hundreds of people, the life sentence is somewhat lenient. Measure for measure, such a soulless person deserves in the least a death sentence that adequately compensates in the strictest possible terms  for the premeditated act of mass murder he tried to commit.

It is still however  laudable  that  the American justice system has to a large extent served justice to a man who would never have faced  trial in Nigeria.  Just recently,  Mohammed  Ali Ndume,  a senator, was revealed to be one of the sponsors of the boko  haram  group of terrorist mass murderers, but a few weeks later he walked free from detention,  granted bail  by a kangaroo judicial system. In other parts of the world terror suspects are never granted bail until  judgement is delivered by competent courts. Another self confessed boko haram member, Mallam Ali Konduga was sentenced to just 3 years in prison after confessing his membership and role in a group that has been engaged in   vicious acts of terrorist mass murders.  Nigeria  is the only lawless jungle  where terror suspects are bailed and mass murderers are jailed for only 3 years.

It is also not a secret that the sponsors and perpetrators of the decades long acts of  targeted  ethno-religious mass murders in the sharia North are well known to the authorities, but none of such culprits has ever been brought to trial. It is thus against this backdrop that the eternal caging of Abdulmutallab  (like the animal that he is)  by the American justice system is welcome
because  he would have walked free in Nigeria.

But yet more tragic and revealing is the mindset  and  hate revealed in Abdulmutallab’s testimony during his sentencing in which he proclaimed  that the “mujahideen is happy to kill in the name of God because that is what the Koran says”.  He also alleged that his botched bomb attack is a reaction to the injustices of American foreign policy against Muslims.  Interestingly, what  Abdulmutallab reveals in his  testimony is  the mindset that  drove the northern  jihad and its attendant  genocide centuries ago  and that is driving the  present day acts  of targeted ethno-religious mass murders  in  the sharia north. It provides an insight  that “to kill as many as possible in the name of God” drives  the boko haram mayhem  and all the other organized group of mass murderers that have murdered  hundreds of thousands of  people  in cold blood since 1945 in the North.

Yet again more surprising is the hypocrisy in Abdulmutallabs testimony in alleging the injustice of American foreign policy against Muslims when there is more social, political and economic injustice against  the beleaguered masses in Nigeria. The doctrine of leadership in Nigeria is anchored on the twin evils  of the “Almajirization” and “Babangidization” of the nation.  “Almajirization” quite simply defined as  total insensitivity to the citizenry and the abandonment and pauperisation of the masses  and “Babangidization” being the institutionalisation of corruption  across the nation. These twin evils and doctrine of leadership which was planted  and institutionalised  by  erstwhile  Northern leaders  from Abdulmutallab’s home turf  is responsible for the mass poverty, mass unemployment, monumental corruption, lack of  basic amenities and infrastructure  such as electricity, pipe borne water, functional hospitals, functional schools, functional refineries, good roads  etc  that has culminated in the institutionalisation of social, political and economic injustice in  Nigeria.

It is thus surprising that in spite of the monumental  and indeed genocidal  injustices in his own country, Abdulmutallab  ignored  the log in his own country’s eyes and  preferred to see the spec in America’s eyes by choosing to act on  injustice in American foreign policy when his own nation was  being literarily consumed in the  intense heat of injustice.  If Abdulmutallab was genuine about fighting injustice, his theatre of war and suicide bombing campaign  should have started from Nigeria where he would have had so many targets in his own backyard with the Babangida’s,  the  Abacha’s,  the Abdulsalami  Abubakar’s  the Umaru  Dikko’s, the Adamu Ciroma’s,  the Atiku Abubakar’s, the  Rilwanu Lukman’s, the Sani Yerima’s, the  Dangote’s   amongst  other Northern leaders in his own backyard  who pillaged  and brought the nation to absolute ruin.

It neither makes sense, nor is it rational to ignore the fire in your own house while fighting the fire in another man’s house. It is thus evident that Abdulmutallab never sought to fight against any imaginary injustice in American foreign policy, for if he was ever truly driven to fight injustice, he would have started from his own country and backyard. Like all demented and bloodthirsty terrorist mass murderers, he acted only  in the name of his Muslim god, who feeds on the blood of innocents as he himself had  confessed   that the “mujahideen is happy to kill in the name of god”.  Fortunately, he will be eternally consigned to a cage and the world will thankfully be rid of such a sick murderous monster.

Nigeria is now  at a dangerous  and existential  crossroad,  held hostage by a whole population of terrorist mass murderers  and sympathisers  who  as Abdulmutallab said are ideologically bent  on joyfully  killing in the name of God. I do not see how the nation can come out of such a predicament except  there is a separation between such fundamentalist Muslims and other religions. There is no nation on earth where significant numbers of fundamentalist Muslims cohabit peacefully with other religions. The Abdulmutallab’s and boko haram is only a sign of what is to come. Those who have ears let them hear!

Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email: lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com