Featured News: Jihadi attack in London -Boko Haram connection?

Of the little that is known about the murder of a British soldier just outside the Woolwich Barracks in London by two as yet unidentified attackers, one thing is certain: the 'justifications' offered for the killing by one of the perpetrators are distinctly reminiscent of those usually offered by jihadis. But one statement may be telling of a specific connection to a foreign conflict.

In released videos, one of the attackers declares: ""We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day... We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don't care about you." He and his accomplice are also reported to have yelled "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") as they beheaded the soldier. With these two elements of an Islamic religious appeal and a notion of revenge or defending the umma (global Islamic community), the perpetrators clearly positioned themselves on the jihadi spectrum.

However, on the aforementioned video the attacker added: "I apologise that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same." It is entirely speculative at this point, but this focus on the suffering of Muslim women in particular may be significant. Both the jihadis appear to be of sub-Saharan African origin, and it is notable that in the last few weeks, sub-Saharan Africa's largest violent jihadi organisation, Boko Haram, has been loudly decrying (even focusing on) the fact that wives and female relatives of their (suspected) members have been detained in prisons by the Nigerian government. This is such a big issue that there that the Nigerian government this week announced that it would be releasing these female prisoners, in a move seen as a sign that the government is seriously trying to placate Boko Haram's militants (as well as aggressively pursuing them with military operations).

It is obviously not unusual for radical Islamists an jihadis to make the alleged mistreatment of Muslim women by non-Muslim authorities a rallying cry, as Iraqi and Afghan insurgents have demonstrated again and again. We also have no indication what country these two men trace their ancestry to, or if they have any meaningful connections to it today (the one in the video had an accent distinct to London's East End). What he referred to as "our land" could either be taken as a reference to Muslim lands in general, or to a specific country he identifies with. But the filmed attacker notably omitted to mention Afghanistan (the only country where British soldiers could actually be said to be "killing Muslims") in his grievances, and the world of jihadis is no stranger to conspiracy theories where almost anyone can be a "proxy agent for the "infidel West". Without a doubt, the real Boko Haram will have had no meaningful connection with this attack -but it is just possible that at least one of the jihadis had Boko Haram's grievances partly in mind when he beheaded a British soldier on a London street.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22630303