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FROM THE TRUTH

TURNING AWAYWON'T MAKE IT DISAPPEAR

DEMYSTIFYING THE ABU MANSUR SAGA

Abu Hamza Al-Muhajirby

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Had they marched out with you, they would have added to you nothing except disorder, and they would have hurried about in your midst (spreading corruption) and sowing sedition among you, and there are some among you who would have listened to them. And Allah is the All-Knower of the Thalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.)

Verily, they had plotted sedition before, and had upset matters for you, - until the truth (victory) came and the Decree of Allah (His Religion, Islam) became manifest though they hated it. [At-Tawbah, 47-48]

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In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

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“And I order you with five (orders), which Allah has ordered me with; the Group (Al-Jama’ah), Listening and Obeying (As-Sam’ Wat-Ta’ah), Migration (Al-Hijrah), and Jihad” (Ahmad and At-Tirmidhi)

"Whoever has the following four (characteristics) will be a pure hypocrite and whoever has one of the following four characteristics will have one characteristic of hypocrisy unless and until he gives it up. 1. Whenever he is entrusted, he betrays. 2. Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie. 3. Whenever he makes a covenant, he proves treacherous. 4. Whenever he quarrels, he behaves in a very imprudent, evil and insulting manner." (Sahih Bukhari)

The Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) said in authentic narrations:

“Perished be the slave of the Dinār and Dirham, of Qatīfah (thick soft cloth) and Khamīsah (i.e. money and luxurious clothes); as he is pleased if these things are given to him, and if not, he is displeased. Let such a person perish and relapse, and if he is pierced with a thorn, let him not find anyone to take it out of him. Tūbā (a tree in Paradise) is for him who holds the reins of his horse to strive in the path of Allāh, with his hair unkempt and feet covered in dust; if he is appointed in the vanguard, he is perfectly satisfied with his post of guarding, and if he is appointed in the rearward, he accepts his post with satisfaction; (he is so simple an unambiguous that) if he asks for permission he is not permitted, and if he intercedes, his intercession is not accepted.” (Bukhari)

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Speaking in Arabic to a mesmerised congregation that comprised mainly of Ansari Mujahideen and some local residents, he discussed the virtues of Jihad and Hijra and then talked at length about the relationship between the Ansar and the Muhajireen during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Focusing specifically on the public complaints of Abu Mansur and his accomplices, the brother did not mince his words as he addressed the gathering:

Many of the youth shook their heads in concurrence with his words amid overflowing enthusiasm and the mounting murmur of voices.

The mosque resounded with the chants of Takbeer. Young men, whom I thought were Mujahideen and who were completely absorbed in the impassioned speech of the Muhajir brother, leapt up from the floor in unbridled exuberance and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!’ Soon enough everyone in the crammed mosque –

There are times when concealing someone’s faults becomes almost intolerable. When a Mujahid feels the need to unburden himself to anyone who would lend him an ear, moaning about the most trivial issues to those least likely to benefit him, and intentionally decides to wash his dirty linen in public, gradually wearing out that thin veneer of respectability in the process, it should come as no surprise

then if the Mujahideen publicly rebuke him for his behaviour and draw attention to his ‘childish petulance’.

The Mujahideen’s commitment to Jihad is unwavering and rarely do they have time to respond to the vacuous remarks of the simple-minded, but at times they may be required to take a firm stance. A few days ago I attended a mosque in Barawe, in Lower Shabelle region, where I personally witnessed one of the most moving speeches I’ve heard in my years of Jihad. Just after Maghrib prayer was concluded by the Imam, one brother stood up and headed towards the pulpit of the mosque. The brother was a senior Arab Muhajir – a humble man known to possess a dignified character - who rarely left the frontlines and whom I had known for several years. For a few minutes he stood there, silently, waiting for the congregation to finish their Nawafil [optional] prayers. People began to congregate around him and within minutes, the murmurs died down and all eyes were fixed on the Muhajir brother in anticipation. With the issue of Abu Mansur still being talked about in the Mujahideen circles, the Muhajir brother, perhaps, wanted to clarify the position of the Muhajireen brothers on the matter.

"It is best you understand, my dear Ansari brothers, that not all the Muhajireen are the same and not all of them come to Somalia for the same reason. By Allah, I have lived with them [Abu Mansur] and know their character and other Muhajireen brothers have also lived with them; Wallahi they are not Ahlul Qital [people of battle] but they are Ahlul Kalaam [people of idle talk]. They are people who stayed in their Makatib [offices] and assumed posts, and once they were removed from their posts they simply sat back and you will never find them in the fields of battle."

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"It would have been appropriate for them to say that they were tired and could no longer carry the burden of Jihad instead of complaining that they have been wronged by the Mujahideen."

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including those peering through the wooden windows, clinging to the door frame or standing in the large crowd that had gathered outside the mosque - was raising their fists in the air and chanting the Takbeer; their voices gradually muting the speech of the Muhajir brother.

It was an awe-inspiring address and arguably one of the most engrossing speeches delivered at the most appropriate of times. The Ansari brothers, considering their compassion for the Muhajireen brothers, were deeply saddened by the rising complaints of one of the Muhajireen brothers and the timely speech of the Muhajir brother in the mosque had most of the congregation – young and old - in tears. The hundreds of invigorated young men who surrounded me were simultaneously filled both with deep emotion and respect for that Muhajir brother. I was moved too and, at the same time, filled with hope. With a few words of sincerity, the brother uplifted the spirits of the congregation and infused the hearts of the Ansari youth with great optimism and love for their Muhajireen brothers. Within days, the news of the Muhajir’s speech had reached almost every Mujahid, suffusing even the remotest Jihadi fronts with renewed vigour.

The Muhajir brother conveyed - rather eloquently, lucidly and with great verve - sentiments I had long wanted to convey but lacked the fluency of the Arabic language. And seeing how that speech uplifted the spirits of the entire Ansari Mujahideen I’ve decided to heal the hearts of the English-speaking Muslims abroad by demystifying the Abu Mansur saga to all the supporters of the Mujahideen in order to assuage their fears and clarify their doubts.

Abu Mansur Al-Amriki’s vitriolic attacks on the leaders of the Mujahideen were not intended for a local audience; the austerities of the Nomadic way of life here in Somalia offer no chance of lending an ear to what has come to be known locally as the ‘unnecessary drivel’ of an Al-Shabaab poster boy. In the global village, however, and through an online presence, Abu Mansur found a captive audience and, crucially, the attention of the Western media - whose growing appetite for anything that is deemed even slightly detrimental to the furtherance of the burgeoning Jihadi ideology has become almost insatiable.

Abu Mansur’s slanderous accusations against Harakat Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahideen do not warrant a response - neither from the leadership of HSM nor from the Mujahideen themselves - and while I do not feel entirely obliged to refute his claims, I believe that not only is it appropriate to shed some light into the reasons why things got to such a stage, but also to declare, unequivocally, the Muhajireen’s disavowal of his puerile antics and his insistence on speaking on their behalf. For months on end I’d watched the story unfold, silently hoping that the brother would one day realise the futility of his undertaking and hasten towards the path of repentance, thereby sparing him and us, the Muhajireen in Somalia, the ordeal; but until now, that has not happened, thus prompting me to write this article. Needless to say, the views expressed here are my personal views, for which I remain liable, and do not represent those of HSM, just as the views of Abu Mansur do not represent the Muhajireen in the Land of Two Migrations.

It is worth noting from the onset that Abu Mansur’s actions are deliberate; neither is he physically immature nor known to have an acute mental disability that would absolve him of responsibility for his actions and he remains, undeniably, conscious of the terrible turn of events. At times, it is painfully embarrassing to

"By Allah I have given my Bay’ah [pledge of allegiance] to Sheikh Abu Zubeyr in person and now from this pulpit I wish to publicly reaffirm my Bay’ah to him and declare, not on my own but on behalf of the Muhajireen, that we’re still firm on our Bay’ah and haven’t discarded it. So, march forth with us, O’ Sheikh, for by Allah you will not find us except patient and steadfast in the face of the enemy.

By Allah, if all the Muhajireen were to take one path and the Ansar another, I would follow the path taken by the Ansar. So, march forth with us, O’ Sheikh, for by Allah you will not find in us except that which pleases your eyes!"

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watch a man whose alleged ideals of restoring the Islamic Khilāfa gradually debase to bickering about his meagre salary and publishing images of his donkey and his wife on the internet just to prove it. But, of course, deplorable as it may be, it is not entirely unusual for a man whose wisdom deemed it necessary to document his sister’s illicit relationships with her boyfriend - perhaps considering it monumental to the history of the global Jihad - to publish the image of his wife and daughter on Twitter. It is, after all, an embodiment of what he defines as the ascetic life of a Mujahid.

A pitiable state of affairs, indeed, but not entirely unexpected; and however outlandish the allegations seem at times, they pale in comparison with the eccentric mindset that regularly churns them out. And the more outrageous the accusations became, the more I felt inclined to enlighten the Muslims, particularly those in the West, about the stark realities on the ground here in Somalia. It is inevitable that any attempt to expound on the Abu Mansur saga would necessitate divulging some information that would have otherwise been buried deeply under the carpet, but because that information is considered indispensible to understanding the complete story, it becomes imperative to unveil it so as to convey a more balanced insight into the grossly inaccurate picture of the Somali Jihad painted by Abu Mansur and also to allay the fears of the Mujahideen around the world in what has now been labelled the ‘Somali soap opera’.

But while Muslims in the West remain completely dumbfounded by the stream of allegations coming from Abu Mansur – an archetypal Western Mujahid in the minds of many – Western Journalists and, more particularly, counter-terrorism analysts were unusually delighted by his online revelations – revelling in the experience, savouring every bit of his histrionic outbursts and rewarding him, every now and then, with a rapturous applause for his free ramblings. Beguiled by the prospect of increased media attention and the massive exposure his condemnation of HSM was receiving from the CT analysts, Abu Mansur aired more of his dirty laundry in public without deciphering neither the derisive undertones of their critiques nor the scathing criticism he’d received from the Mujahideen, both here and abroad.

Without the emergence of any further information on the evolving saga, however, apart from his online rantings of course, Abu Mansur’s narrative would, undoubtedly, seem plausible enough to find some shelter in the hearts of many well-wishers and Jihad enthusiasts around the globe; a young, benevolent white man, alive with unfulfilled dreams, forsakes his homeland in order to wage Jihad in East Africa so as to liberate them from the throes of invasion and enable that backward society to establish an Islamic system of governance while at the same time ennobling them, as it were, with his presence. For some time he imposes his will upon them, but almost imperceptibly things begin to go wrong and in a sudden twist of fate, the same group of people he’d come to help, out of sheer ingratitude and owing to their callous Nomadic nature, become his enemies and somehow abandon him, throwing his life out of balance. The plot thickens and reaches a cathartic moment when it emerges that the savages had given him a 15-day ultimatum to end his life. The story then progresses through several complications as the forces of opposition gradually begin to close in on him and the egocentric protagonist is impelled into an irrevocable course of action that eventually precipitates his downfall. It is a ripe recipe of the tragedy genre and one which many Muslims in the West, unarmed with the facts on the ground, would clearly empathise with.

To separate fact from fiction, however, and disentangle the truth from the avalanche of baseless accusations spewing out from a man who nurses deep grievances against the Mujahideen leaders requires a much longer article, but, for now, in order to evaluate the litany of criticisms made by Abu Mansur against HSM, in particular his tirade of abuse against the leadership whom he charges with a string of extremely serious allegations including ‘Shari’ah infractions’, ‘embezzlement’ and having ‘Takfeeri tendencies’, it is vital to first be fairly acquainted with the personality – or the disorder thereof - behind the moniker.

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The Personality:

The battlefield of Jihad often distinguishes the courageous from the coward; the truthful from the deceitful; the patient from the impulsive; the responsible from the reckless; and the honest from the dishonest. Jihad is the pinnacle of Islam. It’s a school where the virtuous rush to hone their skills and moral conduct, exemplifying the lofty character of a Muslim in accordance with the teachings of the Qur’ān and Sunnah. It is where the true meaning of altruism springs from; a road paved with the selfless sacrifices of Martyrs who’ve traded their wealth and their lives cheaply for the sake of Allah. It is a thorny path that accepts nothing but the purest of deeds and inhibits the progress of those even with the slightest of hypocritical undertones. Since time immemorial, however, many people with ulterior motives have embarked on this path. Many have fallen from grace and many will continue to do so, but the end result is almost always the same; utter humiliation.

Reading Abu Mansur’s autobiography – excruciatingly unbearable as it may be – gives a fairly accurate account of the young boy who had since then metamorphosed into Abu Mansur Al-Amriki. Despite the disorderly and inconsistent plot that renders the reader almost perplexed and the self-aggrandising teenage narrative interspersed with the odd ‘Haha’, the autobiography, much like all of his subsequent writings – whether in Arabic or English - reeks of the fetid odour of unabashed obsession with the self-image. The belief that he was the most ‘popular’, ‘intelligent’, ‘smart’, and ‘made straight A’s’ is all too pervasive in his autobiography, so much so that even his eighth-grade teacher, Mrs Hirsh, who used to call him ‘lesser god Omar’ and who was apparently having ‘marital problems’ at the time, had taken him ‘as the symbol of all that is wrong with males to vent her aggression’. Quite a revelation indeed! But such is the work of a man who, despite the appalling grammatical mistakes and confusion of tenses in his autobiography, usually scored ‘the highest in grammar and reading’ and profoundly harbours the belief that the world ‘needs’ to understand and appreciate who he is to the point that he feels compelled to document his life history as it might ‘at least provide some benefit’ to others.

The autobiography - his magnum opus - itself is not merely a conscious reconstruction of Abu Mansur’s past - a past that is consonant with, and often flamboyantly weaved around, his self-identification in adult life, but it is more of an encapsulation of the inherently narcissistic personality that has come to define Abu Mansur. Much of the hyperbolic portrayal of his life in Jihad – in his autobiography as well as in the recent stream of invective against HSM leaders written in Arabic - is born out of the infantile desire of being loved and admired and the constant need to validate this narcissistic identity. The ‘truth’ in Abu Mansur’s writings is blindly subjective and always linked, inextricably, to the enhancement of his self reflection, thus resulting in a Dorian Gray-ish infatuation with an image that needs to be persistently polished and preserved to appeal to the masses.

In Somalia, Abu Mansur’s assessment of self-worth and his sense of superiority didn’t quite wear off with the Hijra journey – as could be deduced from his autobiography. During the retreat of the Union of Islamic Courts, he writes, he was ‘completely baffled as to why everyone was so ready to just give up so easily’, and while the Mujahideen just ‘sat there staring into the blankness’ out of despair, he, ‘on the other hand, was yelling at everyone to get organised’ and leading the disheartened Mujahideen. This is coming from a man who was fairly new to the Jihadi theatre at the time, ‘almost wanted to cry’ for having his ‘long blonde hair’ shaven off and confesses to ‘not having been officially trained to handle my weapon’ and was, therefore, startled by the mere sound of gunfire.

Of course, it doesn’t come as a surprise that during the dark nights in the bushes the warrior was also ‘tasked with getting the water’ since the other brothers were ‘deathly afraid to approach the bank (especially at night)’ or that all of the Muhajireen brothers at the time were incompetent enough to the point that each of them wanted Abu Mansur to ‘present his case on his behalf ’ during disputes. During the intense

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battles, the star pretended to be watching himself on a ‘TV screen as though this was some form of Chechen Jihaadi flick’ and in the company of the Mujahideen it was, predictably, him who ‘would also lead them in singing Nasheeds in an obnoxiously loud voice’. He ‘would also go on long passionate rants about everything that was wrong with our situation and then end it all rolling in laughter like a deranged hyena.’

It is remarkable, but also bear in mind that the Ansari brothers tend to hold the Muhajireen in high esteem. Many of the young Ansaris are still upon the Fitra; they have no television sets and their minds remain unadulterated by the decadence of Western societies and many have never seen a white person before the Muhajireen brothers graced the Land of Two Migrations with their presence. Naturally, therefore, the Muhajireen brothers were, by and large, welcomed and treated, despite the occasional errors that define the fallibility of human nature, with great reverence as the Ansari brothers competed with one another to serve them. For many of the able-bodied Muhajireen, however, the treatment - despite the good intentions of their Ansari brothers - was slightly discomforting; having someone doing your chores and constantly running errands for you could be awkward at times.

For Abu Mansur, though, a man who was ‘kissed a lot and thrown in the air’ in his early life, the treatment was what he rightfully deserved. It is a unique sense of entitlement that often leads him to burst out into fits of rage if not adequately met; a god-given right to special treatment from what he perceives as subordinates - the Ansaris – that is more akin to the attitudes of the past European colonialists amid their supposedly ‘benighted African savages’ than it is to the character of a Mujahid, and yet a Muhajir at that. Nevertheless, he was ‘kissed a lot and thrown in the air’ by the Ansaris, as they patiently endured years of his temper tantrums, whining attitude, biting criticisms for simple things and constant denigration of their culture and youthful innocence, but unlike his former teacher, the ‘nice lady’, Mrs Campbell, they did not dedicate ‘did you ever know that you are my hero’ to him and when he became insufferably obnoxious, they began to desert him, one after the other, for the battle fronts. They may be innocent and patient but they are not entirely credulous, and he soon became insignificant in the fields of Jihad. But for a man driven by delusions of grandeur, being labelled insignificant is a fate worse than death, and, exploiting the forbearance of the Muhajideen, Abu Mansur began to spew his criticisms with such vitriol that anyone who endured the putrid stench of his thoughts or read his tedious tales cringed in disgust.

Abu Mansur is often at the centre of his own universe - a brittle mental construct of his own making - and judging by the condescending attitude with which he treats the Ansari brothers, who often generously go out of their way to help him, he, more often than not, is the only person competent enough to manage the affairs of the Muslim Ummah. The Ansari brothers, according to him, are intellectually inferior and hence cannot be entrusted with the weighty responsibility of formulating rational plans for the establishment of the Islamic Khilāfa.

But behind the grandiose sense of self-importance and the overwhelming need to be admired lies a fragile self-esteem; an insecurity that hinders his progress and prevents him from establishing reciprocal relationships that complement rather than compete with each other. It is such a devastating sense of insecurity that it compels him to consider everyone who disagrees with his opinions as an archenemy. Hence his conception –according to his recent Arabic articles - of the Muhajireen brothers in Somalia as being constantly at war with the Ansari brothers or that of Al-Qāeda leaders in Somalia competing with the leaders of the Mujahideen in Somalia, each envious of the other and each vying for the top leadership position. It is an asinine evaluation of things and an absurd way of looking at the world, but such are the traits of the irrational mind of a narcissist who puts himself on a pedestal and, from a skewed vantage point, evaluates everything in accordance with his perception – a rather puerile perception that reduces the entire Jihad into a talent show at a children’s circus rather than a grand initiative to restore the Islamic Khilāfa, delivering mankind from the servitude of men to the submission of Allāh alone and from the injustices of man-made laws to the justice of Islam and from narrowness of this world to the vastness of

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the hereafter.

For Abu Mansur, everything is a contest and seldom does he consider it appropriate for another person to be his superior or, in the life of Jihad, instruct him, even if that person was his Amīr. The Mujahideen, on the other hand, often make great concessions and overlook his mistakes, always making allowances for the fact that being a Muhajir who had no other relatives in the land except the Mujahideen, Abu Mansur’s temper tantrums and ‘childish petulance’ ought to be endured. On several occasions, Abu Mansur, infuriated by his unit’s failure to agree to his demands or fatuous ideas, got off the car in the middle of the forest and decided to walk, gleefully sauntering along the dirt road, despite the Mujahideen’s passionate entreaties to return to the vehicle. I’ve asked one of the Arab brothers who had lived with Abu Mansur for a long period of time to describe to me what he had personally witnessed of his personality. These are his own words:

It’s a behaviour that is, even in normal social circles, considered extremely inappropriate for the average man, let alone a Muslim and a Mujahid who aspires to change the world by setting an example for others. With the recent online activity and video releases, however, many people are beginning to accurately discern the image of Abu Mansur. The writings that portray a larger-than-life personality often betray the true nature of a man more concerned with how he is perceived or represented in the media than how the Jihadi message is being propagated. Abu Mansur is, by all accounts, peerless and his style inimitable; a success-oriented narcissist unreasonably expecting obedience and admiration without tangible achievements in the field of Jihad and his only undoing being his highly inflated amour proper. So how did such a man appear into the limelight in the first place?

First Public Appearance:

Abu Mansur was almost instantaneously catapulted into the glare of publicity following his first appearance on Al-Jazeera in 2007. In October that year, some journalists from Al-Jazeera Arabic received authorisation from Sheikh Hassan Turki, head of the Ras Kamboni forces then, to film the Mujahideen in the forests of Southern Somalia. At the time, HSM and the Ras Kamboni forces were not operating under a unified leadership but fully cooperated with one another during the war. The journalists were to film an interview with Sheikh Turki and had requested to take some general shots of the Mujahideen. A meeting was convened by the Amīr of the Muhajireen at the time – a Yemeni brother [may Allah accept him among the Shuhadā] - in which many of the Muhajireen took part and after much deliberation, the Muhajireen reached

من أهم ما تتميز به شخصية أبو منصور األمريكي أنه سريع الغضب وشديد الغضب يف نفس الوقت، يعين أن أبسط شيء ميكن يغضبه يظهر ذلك مباشرة على وجهه وإذا اشتد غضبه ميكن أن تبدر منه على الفور تصرفات غريبة وجنونية، فمثال ميكن أن ينزل من السيارة ويرفض أن يركب مرة أخرى وهذه رأيتها بنفسي، أو يبدأ بالصياح وهذه أيضا رأيناها كثريا، أو يعتدي على الشخص الذي ختالف معه كما وقع مع أبو سليم تقبله اهلل، أو يطرد األخ من بيته كما وقع ذلك

.مع عدد من اإلخوة

‘One of the most distinguishing factors in the personality of Abu Mansur Al-Amriki is his irascibility; he gets angry very quickly and it is often very intense anger – meaning that the simplest of things would make him angry and that would be immediately recognisable on his face. If his anger becomes severe, it causes him to act in a bizarre and crazy way. For example he would get off the car and refuse to return and I have witnessed this personally, or he would begin shouting and this too we have witnessed many times, or he would transgress against the person whom he disagreed with – as happened with Abu Suleim [may Allah accept him – one of the Mujahideen’s most notable military commanders and whom Abu Mansur had slapped across the face] or he would banish the brother from his house, as was the case with many of the brothers’

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a unanimous decision not to appear publicly, as they perceived it not to be in their interests at the time. The journalists were informed of the decision and, understandably, they were sorely disappointed. But before they began interviewing Sheikh Turki, the journalists, as their luck would have it, were suddenly approached by a white man who, after exchanging a few pleasantries with them, requested to be filmed. The journalists were slightly reluctant at first, but having been officially invited by Sheikh Turki and with the Ras Kamboni soldiers also in the scene, they later acquiesced to the shoot and the filming began. That white man was none other than Abu Mansur. During the filming, he was accompanied by another Muhajir from the West and who also most recently appeared alongside him in one of the images uploaded on Twitter. So in effect, Abu Mansur’s first public appearance was the result of a sinful act of disobedience, and it was not a venial sin either. I recently caught up with one of the Muhajireen brothers who took part in the meeting that day and who was with Abu Mansur in the forests of Ras Kamboni. He said:

Since then Abu Mansur had officially appeared in just two Al-Kataib productions, ‘The Ambush in Berdale’ in 2009 and ‘Ashbal Ash-Shuhada 1’ [cubs of Martyrs 1] in 2010 – that’s if we were to exclude his audio response to Barack Obama. At times, feeling ostracised, he even enquired –asking several people - as to why Al-Kataib was no longer featuring him in any of their productions, questioning why he wasn’t included in ‘Ba’th Osama’ [the Dispatch of Osama] in 2011 despite being present at the occasion.

‘The Ambush in Berdale’, Abu Mansur’s premiere as a ‘commander’, is perhaps the most notable of his video appearances. During the time spent in the forests near Berdale, Abu Mansur was the Amīr of one unit – roughly 12 men at the time - of mainly Muhajireen brothers. The Mujahideen were stationed in Ribāt for some time during which Abu Mansur’s eccentric behaviour was beginning to become even more apparent. Some time before the ambush of Berdale, Abu Mansur had a debate with another Muhajir brother - an Arab - whom he ended up assaulting physically and putting a gun to his head. The Muhajir brother was eventually transferred to the camp of the Ansari brothers as he refused to stay in the same camp with Abu Mansur.

After a lengthy period of time in Ribāt, came the moment of the ambush. For hours the Mujahideen – the Muhajireen and another unit of Ansari brothers - walked in the forests in order to reach the point of ambush and engage the Ethiopian forces – a convoy of up to two thousand troops headed towards Baidoa. Once at the designated location, the ‘American commander’ was unable to clearly position the Mujahideen so as to strike the approaching enemy convoy appropriately. Reluctantly, he allowed one of the more experienced Ansari brothers to decide the best formation to engage the Ethiopians and the brother positioned the Muhajireen and Ansari brothers accordingly. The ambush began and the staccato sounds of gunfire resonated throughout the forests, but less than a mere 10 minutes into the battle, the ‘commander’ deemed it necessary to call for a hasty retreat. By the time the retreat was called, the Ethiopians hadn’t

ابو منصور حيب الشهرة وكان حيب الظهور يف اإلعالم منذ أن كنا يف كمبوني، وكلنا نذكر اللقاء الذي ظهر فيه يف قناة اجلزيرة مع حسن ترك وكان املهاجرين يف وقتها اتفقوا على أن ال يظهر أي أحد من املهاجرين يف اإلعالم إال أن أبو منصور األمريكي خالف هذا األمر مع العلم أنه يف وقته مل يكن له يف الصومال إال حوالي 10 أشهر أكثرها قضاه يف

.الغابة يعين أنه مل يكن له أي خربة عسكرية وال شرعية تذكر حتى يقول أنه مثال يريد أن يفيد الناس خبربته

‘Abu Mansur loves publicity and he loved to appear in the media since we were in Kamboni, and we all remember the interview in which he appeared on Al-Jazeera along with Sheikh Hassan Turki. The Muhajireen, at that time, reached an agreement that none of them should publicly appear in the media, but Abu Mansur defied the decision [of the Muhajireen], despite the fact that, at the time, he was in Somalia for merely 10 months, most of which was spent in the forests – meaning that he had no recognizable military experience or knowledge in Shari’ah so as to say that, for example, he wanted to benefit others [with his experience or knowledge].

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yet figured out the precise location of the Mujahideen, but the ‘commander’, clearly triumphant at having fired a few bullets, perhaps, began screaming at the top of his lungs as the Mujahideen retreated: ‘We are Al-Qaeda! Be scared of us!’ ‘We are Al-Qaeda! Be scared of us!’ Immediately, the Ethiopian forces were alerted to the screams and they began mowing down the bushes where the brothers were passing through with their submachine guns. The Mujahideen often went to great lengths to conceal their movements and camouflage their positions from the enemy forces, so to give it away so negligently was an act of incomparable incompetence. But when you are incompetent enough not to even realise your own incompetence, a recipe for disaster is at hand.

The Mujahideen found themselves scattered into the bushes; the Muhajireen were separated from one another and the ‘commander’ – even throwing away his backpack – dashed through the woods, without so much as a backward glance as to where the rest of his unit was. Having failed to meet up with the rest of the Muhajireen, the ‘commander’, on several occasions, unleashed his frustration on the Mujahideen, shouting at the Ansari brothers for failing to adjust their bearings or to fetch them water. It seems all inexplicable but there was a method to his madness: the ambush in Berdale was the commander’s first ever battle that he’d participated in, let alone command! It was the first time that Abu Mansur Al-Amriki – since his arrival in Somalia several years prior – had fired a bullet at a Kafir.

The Ethiopians had almost encircled the Muhajireen brothers had it not been for the blessing of Allāh upon them, resulting in the Martyrdom of Qa’qa – the Kenyan brother who appeared in the video and volunteered to carry the RPG. Abu Mansur, the ‘commander’ of the ambush in Berdale did not even bother to attend the burial of Qa’qa that night because, apparently, he was tired of running. Bear in mind that this is the same ‘commander’ who, after his American passport was stolen in Mogadishu shortly after his arrival, wanted to go to the Libyan embassy in order to report it stolen!

Unofficially, Abu Mansur also released some of his deeply flawed theories on strategy on the internet, under the pen name Abu Jihad Ash-Shāmi, after a brother secured him an account on Ansar Al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF) since Al-Kataib wasn’t offering him adequate exposure. But shortly after disseminating his ideas on the internet and engaging in the discussions, all of his accounts on the forums – Arabic and English - were disabled, leading him to harbour bitter resentments against the Jihadi forums, AMEF in particular.

The Videos:

In early 2011, Abu Mansur contacted one of the Mujahideen brothers and asked him to lend him a firewire cable. Firewire cables – used to transfer data from the camera onto a computer – are relatively difficult to come by here in Somalia. In no time, the brother led Abu Mansur and his companion into a room where he gave them a step-by-step guide on how to transfer data from the camera and then departed. Half an hour later, they exited the room. It is the general consensus among the Mujahideen that the ‘urgent messages’ of Abu Mansur were recorded then – nearly a year before they surfaced on the internet. When the first video was released in March 2012, the brother who had helped Abu Mansur a year earlier screamed in astonishment ‘by Allah I know exactly when he recorded that video’.

It is clear in the videos that they were planned well before their release dates; both the first two videos were shot in exactly the same location and by the time the second video was released, Abu Mansur had already locked himself up in an emotional fort of isolation and roaming the villages of Bay and Bakool. But however ludicrous the content of the videos may sound, Abu Mansur doesn’t fail in his presentation. The videos were a complete theatrical performance; a sagely stare into the camera and a seemingly contrived impression of innocence intermingled with the ostensibly prescient warnings from the sole far-sighted Mujahid in the entire Horn of Africa.

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Shortly after making the grave allegations against the Mujahideen in his videos, Abu Mansur was, oddly enough, also actively engaged in internet discussion forums. In an unfathomably perverse PR strategy, Abu Mansur left no stone unturned to highlight his case, so much so that while all the Kuffar and their media were having a field day with the reports of his videos, Abu Mansur was busy discussing his own death with the members the Islamic Awakening Forum [IAF]. Writing under the pseudonym ‘Abu Jihad’, Abu Mansur fuelled the rumours and repeatedly exhorted the Mujahideen to respond to the news of his alleged death via @HSMPress, lending further credence to the notion that he was consciously seeking to disrupt the unity of the Mujahideen. Responding to the news of his death on IAF, Abu Mansur wrote1:

Was the whole aim of Abu Mansur to deliberately taunt the Mujahideen into responding to the news of his death via Twitter? A ‘deeper political meaning’? Was that simply the intention of it all? To stir the emotions of the Muslims abroad into feeling sympathetic towards his cause and to create a cloud of ambiguity with his sense of ‘deeper political meaning’ and discredit the Mujahideen in the eyes of the wider Muslim population? Surprised that the Mujahideen were ignoring his claims, he wrote in another post2:

And then after a brief comparison between himself and Al-Husain, he asked3:

It is difficult at times to comprehend the rationale behind such behaviour. It is not within the realms of possibility to accurately gauge the sense of gratification Abu Mansur derived from seeing his name circulating in the media or from the interactions with his virtual friends in the discussion forums as they discussed the news of his death. That the Mujahideen responded to the ‘retarded claims of Kenyan and Ugandan generals’ while the, supposedly, more important claims of his death were largely ignored by @HSMPress incensed him so much that he had to go to great lengths to reveal what he considered the weaknesses of the Mujahideen and perhaps to reinforce, by any means possible, the widespread Kafir viewpoint that a multitude of problems were growing within the Mujahideen circles, when in fact the only problem was the personal one that was gnawing away at Abu Mansur’s insides.

1 - http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/execution-american-abu-mansoor-al-amriki-al-58086/index4.html#post6146102 - http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/execution-american-abu-mansoor-al-amriki-al-58086/index4.html#post6147603 - http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/execution-american-abu-mansoor-al-amriki-al-58086/index5.html#post614889

“Personally, I would say that for the Shabaab to respond to this on twitter is a very normal thing in such a circumstance because:

1) that is what twitter is for (dumb rumors and stuff )2) they did it last time3) its casual and not like a full blown video or something4) it doesn't have to be long and drawn out5) its the least you can do when the Ummah is waiting for an answer (even the guy's dad and mom)6) the Kuffaar dropped the story last time they got a clear response, which is obviously better for image

Things are not really clear yet, and letting the ambiguity continue is not only strange, but could point to a deeper political meaning.

Ever heard of double jeopardy?”

“You have to remember, this twitter feed has been answering the retarded claims of kenyan and ugandan generals for the past few months, and this claim is no more or less spurious than the rest.”

Bottom line is: we just want to know what the twitter is saying or not saying...and then maybe WhY?

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After the Videos:

After releasing the videos, the Mujahideen, though taken aback by the allegations, did not rush to reprimand Abu Mansur, but simply let him be - perhaps conscious of the wise words of Imam Shafi when he said:

All the Muhajireen brothers that I’ve talked to were, quite understandably, appalled by Abu Mansur’s actions, but they were not surprised at all. For many years, Abu Mansur’s unreasonable theories were held up to ridicule within the circles of the Mujahideen, but now that he’d decided to publicly declare his views to the wider world, it was, what many had aptly remarked, the beginning of his fall from grace. In public as well as in private, the Mujahideen advised him to fear Allah but the more they advised him, the more determined he became in his campaign to expose what he considered the ills of Al-Shabaab - the voice within him urging him to retaliate for his lost pride. The natural reaction of Abu Mansur, once his perception of self-worth was devalued and the deluge of compliments eroded, was to detach himself – further solidifying his belief that he was right all along and that all the Mujahideen around him were nothing but selfish nationalists who neither adequately valued the importance of the Muhajireen fighters nor the broader concept of global Jihad.

Shortly before the release of his first video in March 2012, the then newly-appointed Amīr of the Muhajireen – also a Muhajir and whom Abu Mansur had severely disparaged in his recent writings – instructed Abu Mansur and a few other Muhajireen brothers, who were in the city of Marka, to join the rest of their units at the frontlines. All of the Muhajireen brothers – except those whose responsibilities demanded that they stay in the cities - were at the time constantly stationed in Ribāt, facing either the Kenyan invaders in the South or the Ethiopians in the West. Abu Mansur defied the orders of his Amīr and refused to go to the frontline and, adamant in his disobedience, rejected the repeated requests from most of the Umarā who had spoken to him. Noticing that, the Amīr of the Muhajireen confiscated Abu Mansur’s vehicle – which belonged to the treasury of Islam and which he was using personally at the time – and gave it to other brothers who were more in need of it in order to help the Jihad.

At regular intervals, an array of Umarā sat with Abu Mansur in order to find a solution to his escalating complaints but to no avail. The exhaustive attempts of the Umarā were often met with disdain, eventually resulting in Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, ‘Ali Dheere’, setting up an appointment to meet Abu Mansur in order to personally discuss the problem with him. On the morning of the appointment, Sheikh Ali Dheere repeatedly called Abu Mansur on the phone but received no response. Several hours later, Abu Mansur answered the calls of the Sheikh and, apologising for his failure to keep the appointment because he was overtaken by a deep slumber, promised to call the Sheikh within an hour. An hour later, Abu Mansur’s phone was switched off, prompting the Sheikh to return home disappointed. That night, Abu Mansur’s first video had made its debut online and with every possible attempt to appease him having been thoroughly exhausted, Abu Mansur had the effrontery to complain that the Mujahideen were out to kill him.

It is incredible, but for a man so concerned with his uniqueness that he devoted much of his time trying to substantiate it and document it to the world, the need to display his superiority in a myriad of ways is always unquenchable. With his car confiscated, Abu Mansur decided to punish the Mujahideen and put them in a tight spot. With a gun slung around his shoulder, he took to the streets – roaming the

إذا نطق السفيه فال جتبه

فخري من إجابته السكوُت

فإن كّلمته فّرجت عنه

وإن خليته كمدًا ميوُت

When the foolish one speaks, do not respond to himFor better than a response (to him) is silenceIf you speak to him, you have relieved his sufferingAnd if you leave him (with no reply), in anguish he dies

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roads of Marka, to and fro, going from shop to shop, praying in the local mosques and, in the evenings, sitting outside the local ice cream parlour, eating in public, visiting crowded tea spots and sneering at the Mujahideen who denied him the flattery he needed. Unsurprisingly, this caused a lot of commotion and soon enough Abu Mansur was the talk of the town; people came in their hordes to catch a glimpse of a white man sipping tea with Somali elders in the middle of Marka, men threw curious glances at him and girls giggled at the way he pronounced certain Somali words as he spoke. In return, he often rewarded them, customarily, with an ingratiating smile and before long he was a celebrity in Marka.

Some days later, Abu Mansur – making the most of his newfound celebrity status – went to different schools in Marka to offer his services as an English teacher. From one school to the other and from one interview to another, the reply came back the same; sorry, we can’t employ you! Abu Mansur was perhaps overqualified for the job, but for many of the schools, the burden of his security outweighed the benefits of his employment and thus the rejection. The headmasters of the schools quickly rushed to the office of the Wali – Governor - of Lower Shabeelle, Abu Abdullah, and notified him of Abu Mansur’s proposals.

The Wali, who was at the time in Marka, was informed of Abu Mansur’s activities and he was, of course, mortified. He personally went to Abu Mansur and implored him to stay in his house and refrain from eating in public areas. The Wali pledged to take care of Abu Mansur’s needs, even offering him a sum of $7000 to buy a personal vehicle so that he doesn’t have to roam the streets of the city. For the Wali, Abu Mansur was a liability since he was in his area of governance and with the spies of the Kuffar thought to be operating in the areas of the Mujahideen, it was risky leaving a Muhajir exposed. Abu Mansur, however, was a man on a mission; he had to prove his grandeur, even if it meant endangering his life. Thus the well-meaning gesture of the Wali was rebuffed with some impertinent remarks – eating in public is the American way of life - and the money was used to buy a minibus –for a business venture that he wanted to start - and a donkey. Several other Umarā came to him, requesting him to stop putting his life and the lives of others in danger but were met with the same response. The Wali soon gave up hope and retired back to his duties after assigning some brothers to look after Abu Mansur.

The days passed and Abu Mansur continued to socialise with the public, until, all of a sudden, he disappeared. Concerned for his safety, the Wali searched every corner of the city but there was no sign of Abu Mansur. Several days later, some villagers reported seeing a white man stranded in some forests and looking rather fatigued. The Wali immediately headed for the direction mentioned by the villagers and, after some time trekking through the wilderness, found Abu Mansur. But despite all his efforts, the Wali's offer of help was vehemently declined. It turned out that Abu Mansur had fled the city in the darkness of the night and, employing the services of a local ‘guide’, was determined to reach another remote village. Once safely out of reach of the city, however, the trusted ‘guide’ stole Abu Mansur’s AK47, pistol and $200 in cash and disappeared into the darkness, leaving Abu Mansur stranded in the middle of no-where. The Mujahideen, by the grace of Allah, managed to trace the ‘guide’ and retrieve Abu Mansur’s belongings.

Abu Mansur did not last long in Marka. Feeling betrayed, he detached himself from the Mujahideen and withdrew to some of the remote villages in the regions of Bay and Bakool, and, having already purchased a donkey in Marka, began his new life as a poultry farmer, accompanied by his companion – the Western Muhajir who had appeared alongside him in the Al-Jazeera clips and who had then found a unique delight in being a street vendor, selling plastic phone covers and other odd bric-a-brac on the roadside. Naturally, the pair was attracting unusual attention from the villagers and soon they were the subject of gossip in all nearby villages, particularly Abu Mansur’s highly temperamental behaviour that led him to violently assault his landlord after the latter instructed him to vacate his house. It was in that tumultuous state of mind and resentful attitude that Abu Mansur began the second phase of his mission: the social media.

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Social Media:

Being disregarded locally as a mere nuisance didn’t fully diminish Abu Mansur’s hopes of international stardom; the Western audience, who were largely unaware of the events on the ground, still admired Abu Mansur, discussing, sympathetically, his predicament and eulogising his alleged ‘achievements’ in the fields of Jihad. Exploiting this, and fully aware of the efficacy of his message in the West, Abu Mansur – who firmly believes that he has ‘made Al-Shabaab famous’ - went online and followed up the video releases with a series of rants on Twitter. The virtual world provided a protective barrier that insulated his highly inflated ego from criticism, but to compensate for the rejection of his irrational ideas and lack of appreciation on the ground, the virtual world also offered an easy escape route where a good narcissistic supply of adulation to bolster the bruised self-image was readily available. So to settle the score and get back at those who denied him the special treatment he deserved, a more malignant version of the narcissist appeared on Twitter to give vent to his feelings, transforming the micro-blogging site into a platform of humiliation directed at his perceived enemies - HSM leaders. By confining the objectives of HSM leaders to the geographical boundaries of Somalia, discrediting their achievements, casting doubts over their Jihadi credentials, downplaying the relevance of their status, accusing them of murdering the Muhajireen and drawing a clear distinction between their Jihad and that of Al-Qaeda, Abu Mansur was, rather insinuatingly, highlighting his illusory superiority and presenting himself as the only alternative leader – a worthy enough Muhajir who better understood the needs of the Muslim Ummah than the local Somali leaders.

Such a melodramatic reaction to simple disagreements is often borne out of the need to constantly project a loveable image - an image that is unable to handle the unvarnished truth and is often vulnerable to the harsh realities of Jihad; that Jihad is not about the image of an individual grossly infatuated with his reflection but more about the plight of the greater Muslim Ummah. Another Muhajir brother added that:

Abu Mansur, the ‘grand military strategist’ who purportedly understands the intricate Somali tribal society, the subtle manoeuvrings that are often required to influence or win over local tribes, the treacherous terrain and even the local patois better than the Ansaris, also questioned the strategies employed by the Mujahideen. It is preposterous, to say the least, that a novice soldier who could barely identify the direction of an incoming bullet a few years ago or couldn’t competently lead a simple ambush would now instruct his veteran trainers on matters of strategy. It is just as preposterous, in my opinion, to simply retreat and disappear into the woods whilst still retaining the initiative in battle and armed with the faith that defeating the African invaders was not only probable in Mogadishu but practical. A quasi-conventional warfare combined with the constant guerrilla attacks in the capital city did not fully manage to dislodge the invaders, however, despite reaching merely a stone-throw away from the Presidential Palace, and, with minimal casualties, the Mujahideen retreated, once again reverting to the well-honed asymmetrical patterns of warfare with exceptional flexibility, rigid faith, unwavering conviction and the moral stomach to prevail in a long, protracted war, while at the same time denying the enemy a significant opportunity for a counteroffensive.

هو)ابو منصور( كثري النقاش يعين إذا كنت متشي معه مثال فهو يريد أن يناقشك يف كل فكرة يف رأسه فإما أن تقنعهفرمبا له استسلمت وإذا احلق تريد ال أنك يعين فهذا وتركته عنه سكت وإذا وتستسلم، تقتنع وإما جدا صعب وهذا

.يقودك إىل اهلاوية بسبب آرائه الغريبة

‘He (Abu Mansur) debates a lot. If you were walking with him, for example, he would want to debate with you regarding every idea in his head, so you either convince him – and this is very difficult – or you acquiesce to his ideas and surrender. If you stay silent and leave him, then it means that you do not want the truth and if you surrender to him, then maybe he would lead you to destruction because of his bizarre ideas.’

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A clear strategy needs to be feasible and with clearly-defined objectives that are attainable - something that seems rather incongruous with the unrealistic goals advocated by the strategist in Abu Mansur. Compelling the Mujahideen to unanimously declare a global Khilāfa, while each Jihadi front is plagued by seemingly insurmountable hurdles of its own, is more idealistic than pragmatic. It is a synthesis of the unreasonable evaluations of a convoluted mind and the gravely misconstrued concepts of Sheikh Abu Mus’ab As-Suri that Abu Mansur identifies as a strategy, ignoring the means – the vital issues pertinent to the current phase of Jihad – and merely concentrating on the end result.

Conclusion:

Because he is a man ‘destined’ for greatness and rightfully ‘entitled’ to special treatment – the strategist deems his mere existence in Somalia sufficient enough to warrant him such a special treatment, considering it his prerogative as an educated American Mujahid – Abu Mansur perceives everyone who treats him as an ordinary Mujahid, particularly the Umarā, as an obstacle to the fulfilment of his dreams, insulting them with such impudence that it is often reprehensible. The grave allegations against HSM leaders are, in Abu Mansur’s reasoning, a punishment for their ignorance of his true worth. That is his modus operandi. It is one of his idiosyncrasies; - a belligerent attitude that cannot bear to accept any opposing viewpoints and has the constant need to exaggerate simple disagreements – whether slight misunderstandings on matters of Islamic Jurisprudence that accept disagreement or decisions on the battle fronts – by verbally lashing out at the nearest Mujahid and ridiculing the Mujahideen leaders in order to alleviate his inner turmoil and validate his grandiose fantasies. Every minor disagreement or even the most innocuous deed is often interpreted, in his paranoid mind, as a direct threat – case in point, the 15-day ultimatum.

When the Mujahideen usually return from the frontlines, in a short vacation to visit their families after lengthy periods in Ribāt, they would naturally carry their guns, sometimes in public. The overt display of weapons in an area protected by the administration of the Mujahideen – an area that is considered safe and secure - is not, however, often encouraged as it is not appropriate. To minimise this, the Amīr of the area – including the villages where Abu Mansur and some of his accomplices were staying - ordered the Ansari Mujahideen to refrain from carrying their weapons in public. All the Ansaris in the area were given the options of either leaving their weapons at home, depositing them at the military headquarters on entering the village or, in case they did not like the first two options, returning to the frontline. Walking around the villages with weapons was prohibited and the Ansaris were given 15 days to comply with the order after which they would be summoned in court. Abu Mansur’s hypersensitive mind, however, quickly triggered a hysterical reaction to the instruction, interpreting it as a personal threat when in fact no one had even spoken to him. Publicising the threat was, in itself, another way of bolstering that self-image. It is an existence that is solely dependent on other people’s perceptions of his image, thereby reacting aggressively to everything he perceives as a danger to that projected image.

But behind the mask of self-importance and feigned humility, the fragile desire to be recognised as a notorious terrorist – the quintessential Western Mujahid - is all too conspicuous, highlighting the delicate line between ‘Abu Mansur the real person’ and ‘Abu Mansur the inflated ideal’. Appearing on the FBI most wanted list further stokes such desire – a desire that would take advantage of everyone and everything in order to be achieved. Worth noting here also is that the Jihadi rap Nasheeds, ‘send me a cruise’ and ‘make Jihad with me’, that are often erroneously attributed to Abu Mansur are the work of another Muhajir, - another American Mujahid - but, of course, Abu Mansur would never say otherwise since the Nasheeds ‘perfect’ and complement his projected self-image.

In the greater scheme of things, however, Abu Mansur remains more of a man who is outwardly paralysed by an egotistical obsession with the self image and inwardly consumed by uncontrollable paroxysms of jealousy rather than someone with a profound concern for the state and wellbeing of the global Jihad.

17

And left to his own devices, Abu Mansur would still continue to dwell in the labyrinthine depths of his overweening vanity, submerged in the sea of hubris and singing in his unmistakably supercilious tones long after the caravan of the Jihad had departed to conquer new lands. The Western media would eventually grow tired of his rather arid pieces of writing, scornfully disregarding him as a mere nuisance as the lustre of his Jihadi credentials finally fades and, of course, the highly-coveted status of being a fabled American Mujahid would have completely eluded him by then. So long, the American!

The Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) said in an authentic narration:

“There will not cease to be a party (Tā’ifah) from my Nation (Ummah), establishing the order of Allāh. They are unharmed by those who betray them or oppose them, until the Decision of Allāh arrives and they are dominant over the people.” (Muslim)

And our final words are all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds!

A FINAL REMINDER!