When the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump announced the death of the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or DAESH as it’s acronym is properly and derisively put in Arabic during a military strike on 26th October at his compound at the Northwestern region in Syria and the subsequent release of footage to back up the claims, nothing else would be experienced except an atmosphere of tranquility and peace knowing fully that the dilemma caused by the number one citizen of a leading terrorist group in the world has come to an abrupt end.
Prior to this, series of reports and rumours have been circulated over the years with regards to his demise and ‘re-incarnation’. In July 2015, The New York Times wrote that rumors that al-Baghdadi had been killed or injured earlier in the year had been dispelled. In October same year, the Iraqi air force claimed to have bombed Al-Baghdadi’s convoy in the Western Anbar province close to the Syrian border while he was heading to Al-Karābilah to attend an ISIL meeting, the location of which was also said to be bombed. His fate was not immediately confirmed.
The Syrian State TV claimed Al-Baghdadi had been killed in the artillery strike that was backed by the US in June 2017 and similarly, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a Russian media on 16th June 2017, reported that Al-Baghdadi might have been killed in a Russian air strike near Raqqa, Syria on 28 May along with 30 mid-level ISIL leaders and 300 other fighters.
Just as the DAESH’ case in the Middle East, the Nigerian instance is not an exception with their Boko Haram counterpart where its leader, Abubakar Shekau had died and even reincarnated in various reports.
The whole story started in July 2009 when he was announced to have been killed but only for him to resurface after about a year later and from then, up until now, numerous cases of reports of his death and reincarnation have made their way into the media airwaves. Even the Nigerian Army on different occasions, pronounced him killed and when he resurfaced, the appearee was tagged an impostor, reaffirming its earlier claim.
As Al-Baghdad had risen from his death numerous times, the Nigeria’s enemy of national unity and peace has existed in the same way. The bitter truth is that no matter how many times these individuals of anti-societal progress and development die, they would continue to live like time.
This occurs not because of their personalities and individualities but the ideological belief which has and is continuously been taught and trained to their younger accomplices. The ideology make the followers see numerous reasons to take up the task left by their leaders. The younger generations are recruited and brainwashed on their reward being in heaven with a very high rank.
While full attention is paid on the terrorist which is what the world is doing, efforts should be put to kill this fast growing perverted ideology. The death of an individual on a cause only brings an end to his life but definitely not his aspirations or motivations as the possibility of the dream coming into life lives with the activities of other people that share same goals with him. The Marxist ideology continues to exist decades and even centuries after the death of its proponent, Karl Marx because the idelogy was comprehended and upheld by many.
– Abdul Waheed Shotonwa writes for Muslim News
