Terrorism & the Wahhabi Sect

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Below is a far from complete list, highlighting only the more significant terrorist attacks.  We are only looking at events since 2000 to make a point, and we are only considering attacks that target civilians and are blatantly against shari’ah. 

Date

Event

Perpetrator

Casualties

24th December 2000

Christmas Eve bombings

Al-Qaeda & Jemaah Islamiyah

18 dead, hundreds injured

11th September 2001

9/11 attack

Al-Qaeda

2,996 dead, 6,000+ injured

13th December 2001

Indian Parliament attack

Jaish-e-Mohammad & Lashkar-e-Taiba

7 dead, 12 injured

12th October 2002

Bali bombing

Jemaah Islamiyah

202 dead, 240 injured

05th August 2003

JW Marriott Hotel bombing, Jakarta

Jemaah Islamiyah

12 dead, 150 injured

11th March 2004

Madrid train bombings

Al-Qaeda

191 dead, 1,800 injured

01st September 2004

Beslan hostage crisis

Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade

385+ dead (186 children), 783 injured

09th September 2004

Australian Embassy bombing, Jakarta

Jemaah Islamiyah

9 dead, 150+ injured

05th July 2005

Ram Temple attack, Ayodhya

Lashkar-e-Taiba

6 dead, dozens injured

07th July 2005

London bombings

Al-Qaeda affiliates

52 dead, 700 injured

23rd July 2005

Attack on Sharm el-Sheikh

Abdullah Azzam Brigade

88 dead, 150+ injured

01st October 2005

Bali bombing II

Jemaah Islamiyah

20 dead, 100+ injured

29th October 2005

New Delhi bombing

Lashkar-e-Taiba

62 dead, 210 injured

09th November 2005

Amman bombings

Al-Qaeda affiliates

60 dead, 115 injured

11th July 2006

Mumbai train bombings

Lashkar-e-Qahhar

209 dead, 714+ injured

14th August 2007

Qahtaniya bombing

Al-Qaeda in Iraq

796 dead, 1,562 injured

26th July 2008

Ahmedabad bombings

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami

56 dead, 200+ injured

13th September 2008

Series of bombings in New Delhi

Indian Mujahideen

30 dead, 130 injured

26th November 2008

Mumbai attacks

Lashkar-e-Taiba

166+ dead, 600+ injured

17th July 2009

JW Marriott & Ritz-Carlton Hotels bombing

Jemaah Islamiyah

2 dead, 53+ injured

18th July 2009

Beledweyne bombing, Somalia

Al-Shabaab

38 dead, dozens injured

29th March 2010

Moscow Metro bombings

Caucasus Emirate

40 dead, 102+ injured

28th May 2010

Attacks on Ahmadi Mosques, Lahore

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

86 dead, 12+ injured

07th December 2010

Varanasi bombing

Indian Mujahideen

2 dead, 37 injured

21st January 2011

Domodedovo International Airport bombing

Caucasus Emirate & Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade

37 dead, 173 injured

25th December 2011

Nigerian church bombings

Boko Haram

41+ dead, 57+ injured

05th January 2012

Baghdad & Nasiriyah bombings

Islamic State of Iraq

73 dead, 149 injured

23rd February 2012

Anti-Shi’ah campaign

Islamic State of Iraq

83 dead, 250+ injured

21st February 2013

Hyderabad blasts

Indian Mujahideen

17 dead, 119 injured

15th April 2013

Boston Marathon bombings

Al-Qaeda affiliates

3 dead, 264 injured

21st September 2013

Westgate shopping mall attack, Nairobi

Al-Shabaab

67 dead, 175 injured

22nd September 2013

Peshawar church attack

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

80-83 killed, 250 injured

29th September 2013

Gujba college massacre, Nigeria

Boko Haram

44 dead

14th February 2013

Borno Massacre, Nigeria

Boko Haram

121 dead

20th May 2014

Jos bombings, Nigeria

Boko Haram

118+ dead, 56+ injured

August 2014

Shu’aytat tribe, Deir ez-Zor Governorate massacre

Islamic State of Iraq

700+ dead

28th November 2014

Kano bombing

Boko Haram

120+ dead, 260 injured

15th December 2014

Sydney hostage crisis

Islamic State affiliate

2 dead, 4 injured

16th December 2014

Peshawar school attack

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

145 dead (132 children), 114 injured

18th December 2014

Gumsuri kidnappings

Boko Haram

32 killed (185 women & children kidnapped)

18th December 2014

Mass Grave discovered in Easter Syria

Islamic State of Iraq

230 killed

22nd December 2014

Gombe bus station bombing, Nigeria

Boko Haram

20+ killed, dozens injured

22nd December 2014

Al-Anbar massacre of women

Islamic State of Iraq

150 killed, some pregnant

This is not a comprehensive list.  These are some of the same organisations and their affiliates linked or involved in these sorts of attacks over the years: the Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan; Al-Qaeda as the Americans spell it and their regional groups; ISIS in their various incarnations; Laskar e-Taiba, Laskar Jihad, and their various splinter groups; Jemaah Islamiyah as they spell it, Ansar al-Sharia and all their many splinter groups.  The majority of these attacks target women, children, and civilians.  And this does not take into account the human cost and the scale of this tragedy. 

They all have one thing in common.  If we go through the list and look at the ideology of these groups and people behind them, they all belong to the Wahhabi sect.  It is about time that somebody said it.  Every single one of these people subscribe, in some form or manner, to the ideology of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab an-Najdi.  Many of these groups are funded from or through Saudi affiliates.  It is about time that Muslims got together and actually addressed this heresy for what it is - something that is a cancer to the ummah.  These people are radicalised by the same sort of hate, denigration and exceptionalism that eventually leads to the more radical elements amongst them justifying violence. 

Where does it begin?  It begins when we have casual reference from “moderate” Wahhabi preachers such as Nu’man Ali Khan and Isma’il ibn Musa Mink that Muslims who adhere to certain practices are polytheists.  That means, we are not “real” Muslims anymore.  This is takfir on a massive scale.  And then it moves on to more firebrand preachers amongst them who make a career out of denouncing these practices as kufr, and its adherents as non-Muslims.  These include people like Abu Aminah Bilal Philips and Abu Mus’ab Wajdi al-Akkari.  They also make a career out of “correcting” the Christians and the Jews, people like Zakir ‘Abd al-Karim Nayk and Yusuf Estes, even though their knowledge of the subject is greatly lacking. 

And then they take it further, preaching that they must correct the ummah by censoring “incorrect” teachings, closing down mosques that have tombs, removing graves from certain areas, banning women from the mosque, and forcing their narrow interpretation of the religion upon us.  The majority keep silent when they slander our scholars past and present, when they mischaracterise our practices as kufr, when they attack our non-Muslim neighbours, when they insist on following “only Qur’an and ahadits” despite their ignorance of it and abandon the ways of the pious predecessors. 

And when they are given authority because the majority are silent or afraid, they have closed down our institutions or subverted them, abandoned our practices in the name of a “purer” Islam, cut at the root of the religion while we were silent.  And when they are given opportunities to wage armed struggle, they have systematically killed our scholars and leaders, murdered families and tribes, destroyed mosques and tombs, burned our books.  And what do the Muslims say?  The naive, the foolish, the ignorant and the cowardly say: “They are still our Muslim brothers and they have said the shahadah.” 

There are many ahadits about them, but this is the one that resonates the most.  The Prophet (s.a.w.) stated, “My ummah is destined to differ and be divided.  So a group will rise whose talks will sound very good but their character will be misleading.  They will read the Qur’an but it will not descend below their throats.  They will leave Diyn just as an arrow pierces and goes right through the prey.  They will not return to Islam.  They are the worst of Creation because of their nature and constitution.  They will call the people towards the Qur’an and Diyn whilst in reality, they will have nothing to do with Islam.  Whoever will confront them, he will be the most Beloved servant of Allah.” 

Look at these kafirun and know their fruits of injustice, blood and fire.  It is our jihad to confront these heretics, to censure their teachings, to refute their ideology, to condemn their enablers and to fight them spiritually, theologically and politically, first and foremost.  We must fight them until they say, “Laa ilaha illa Allah” or until they are defeated.  This is our jihad in these times. 

In John Boynton Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls”, we find this pertinent quote about social justice and the connectedness of humanity.  The main protagonist, Inspector Goole said this in closing: “One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do.  We don’t live alone.  We are members of one body.  We are responsible for each other.  And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.  Good night.”



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