NEFA Foundation: AQIM Offers "Consolation and Condolences" to Nigerian Islamists
By Evan Kohlmann
The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new statement from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in which the group offers "consolation and condolences" to Nigerian Muslims in response to the swift Nigerian government crackdown on the nascent "Boko Haram" movement. According to the statement, "we followed with broken hearts the events of the massacre which befell our relatives and brothers in Nigeria over the past days -- this barbaric crime and ugly revenge which was perpetrated against the rights of approximately 800 Muslims by wrecking their mosques, bombing their hospital, and tearing down their houses. The spiteful Christian army of Nigeria has been maiming and murdering Muslims well within eyesight and earshot of the world that is so proud of its human rights and its values of freedom and fake justice." The AQIM further warned, "the blood of Shaykh Mohamed Yusuf and his brothers won't go away just like that. By the will of Allah, it will serve as a lantern to light the path for Muslims in Nigeria and as an inferno that will burn the cross worshippers and water the tree of Islam."
A translation of the AQIM communique can be downloaded from the NEFA Foundation website.