Al Qaeda and Al Shabab

One of Muhammad’s assertions was, “If you take up a domestic life, hold on to the tails of cattle, are content with farming, and thus abandon jihad, Allah will let humiliation lord over you until you return to your religion.” This statement raises two highly controversial questions that are still pertinent to jihad and to terrorism in general. The first regards suicide: Is it legitimate for a Muslim to kill him or herself for the sake of Islam? The second question is more relevant to my topic, as my topic focuses on terrorism’s effects on others: Is it legitimate to bombard the infidels if Muslims, women and children, are intermingled with them? According to Al Qaeda, it is clear that the answer to both of these questions is “yes.”

            These terrorist beliefs, coupled with the alliance of Al Qaeda and Al Shabab, have contributed to Somalia’s status as a “failed nation.” New punishments are created everyday for petty “crimes,” if you can even call them that, and the Somali public has been terrorized for years. Stoning, amputation, public humiliation, and whippings are not uncommon components of Al Shabab’s effort to return Somalia to a "seventh-century-style Islamic state."

            But the main problem with Somalia is that it doesn’t show any signs of getting better. Al Shabab and Al Qaeda grow increasingly closer every day, and organizing suicide bombings and attracting jihadists from around the world, even from the United States. Though most prominent and most “effective” in Somalia, Al Shabab is no longer restricted to this nation; it has been influencing Yemen, Kenya and Uganda as well. The alliance between Al Shabab and Al Qaeda isn’t going away until a foreign nation takes action against it, but who knows what consequences could arise from that? There are too few plausible solutions.

Source: The Al Qaeda Reader

Source: "Al Shabab" from The New York Times