Abubakar Shekau, leader of Nigerian terrorist group
Boko Haram, has resurfaced in a new video, claiming responsibility for
attacks on the army and declaring that there is no room for Christians to live
with Muslims in the country as equals.
The terrorist group has been responsible for
the deaths of over 20,000 people, including Muslims and Christians, since 2009
and has said in the past that it will seek to kill all Christians and blow up
every church.
"My message is to Islamic clerics in Nigeria
who despite their position are giving wrong interpretation to the Holy Koran;
you are playing with hell fire. You have to be careful because Koran has
divided mankind into three; some are believers, some are hypocrites and some
are nonbelievers. There is no way we Muslims in mosques and Christians in
churches and you think we can work together," Shekau says in his latest
message, as reported by the Premium Times on Wednesday.
"This has never happened before even during the
lifetime of all apostles of the prophet."
The jihadist leader further explains that
non-Muslims could be allowed to exist if they "remain by the side without
interference" while Muslims are "ruling with Sharia," which is a
position that the democratic government of Nigeria rejects.
Rumors have swirled in the past of Shekau's death
and of Boko Haram's leadership splintering in two, but the head of the
terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria, has insisted he is still in charge.
Shekau said that his fighters were responsible for
an ambush of a military-escorted convoy of travelers last week, which ended
with the abduction of 16 women.
The police separately said that at least two people,
including a police officer, were killed in the attack along Maiduguri-Damboa
road.
As Al Jazeera reported in May, Boko Haram's war with the
Nigerian military since 2009 has led to 20,000 casualties, with thousands of
people, including many Christians, abducted and forced to marry Islamic
radicals.
The terrorist group has bombed churches and
government buildings, vowing to drive out all followers of Christ from the
country.
In August 2016, reports emerged that Boko Haram
elected spokesman Abu Musab al-Barnawi as its new leader, with new threats made
against Christians.
"They strongly seek to Christianize the
society," al-Barnawi said at the time, airing his grievances. "They exploit
the condition of those who are displaced under the raging war, providing them
with food and shelter and then Christianizing their children."
Al-Barnawi vowed that the jihadists will respond to
the threat of evangelism by "booby-trapping and blowing up every church
that we are able to reach, and killing all of those who we find from the
citizens of the cross."
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