The Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen (HSM) militants attacked a beach restaurant at Banadir in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday the 25th of August 2016.
According to intelligence reports a vehicle bound explosive device (VBIED) was detonated outside the Banadir Beach Club in the Lido area. Gunmen then stormed the building indiscriminately shooting at innocent children, women, and other civilians.
2 Terrorists died while a 3rd one was captured alive in the 6-hour operation by a special unit of the Somali National Intelligence Agency (NISA). Approximately 11 people were killed in the terror attack that targeted the same people who the terror group wishes to rule using Sharia law.
However, the most captivating of these sad events is the medical report about the 3rd terrorist (one captured alive by NISA forces).
All the 3 terrorists had been intoxicated with hard liquor (a spirit possibly a cheap whisky or vodka) before going on a murder spree of innocent children, women, and the defenseless at Banadir Mogadishu.
Alcohol is haram, in Islam. Al-Shabaab wants to impose Sharia law in Somalia. Sharia condemns drinking of alcohol, yet the terror group intoxicates its suicide bombers before they conduct attacks against innocent civilians (this confirms these elements do not subscribe to true Islam. The suicide bombers and militants aren’t Muslims rather half conscripts and adherents of Islam). Another important node to note is that 'for one thing, terrorists aren't likely to volunteer as experimental subjects, as such suicide bombers must be motivated beyond religion (beyond janah and the 72 virgins).
Throughout the beginning of the 21st century, terrorism has come to be a major concern worldwide. Due to the frequency and magnitude of violence, many scholars have and are trying to determine the sudden surge in activity, but not drunk/intoxicated suicide bombers and fighters. In Kenya, intelligence agencies have linked drug shipments to the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Al-Shabaab Mujahideen (HSM) militants. There’s a nexus between some coastal drug-kingpins and Al-Shabaab and this is the truly profound (a node that joins the many dots that claims terrorists use drugs and alcohol despite claim they are religious zealots).
While scholars of Islam and terrorism trained their efforts in identifying the main factors, focus has shifted from nationalism to religious fundamentalism as the cause of terrorist acts. Yet again, today, ‘we are again shifting focus from religion, to intoxication as the factor of escalating suicide attacks-success.
Subjectively though, just like doping in athletics, religious fundamentalism accelerated terrorism in the modern world, through use of drugs and alcohol (intoxicating cohorts through radicalization and intoxication) to ensure the suicide bombers subconscious fear of death was numbed and their desire for meaning and personal significance through killing the percieved kaffir for Allah, was accelerated.
Al-Shabaab terrorists’ use of alcohol and drugs to accelerate terror against women and children is evidence that the bombers and fighters aren’t true Muslims, rather half Muslims and bigots of reality. Finally, one must determine the shift from nationalistic violence to fundamentalism, and use this to explain how fundamentalism and use of drugs besides alcohol has become the root of modern terroristic acts.
