Al Sunna Wal Jamma
Al Sunna Wal Jamma -- Arabic for "followers of Mohammed's teachings" -- is an Islamic movement of about university students fighting to create a Taliban-style Muslim state in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Since 2002 the group has campaigned for an Islamic state and publicly criticized officials it saw as lax in implementing Islamic law. The movement enjoys a following among university students in Maiduguri, the main city in northeastern Nigeria.
The phrase "Ahl al-Sunna wa'al Jamma" is also used generally to describe the orthodox Islamic beliefs that Muslims have been adhering to for over a thousand years, consisting of all the scholars of the 4 madhahib (Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali). The first time the term was used was during the Rule of the Abbasid kalif, Mansoor.
Nigerian officials reported on 03 January 2004 that the government had put down an armed uprising after running battles that killed at least eight people. Two police officers and at least six of the militants died in five days of clashes in three towns in predominantly Islamic Yobe state, including the capital, Damaturu. Violence started on 31 December 2003, when roughly 200 militants attacked two police stations in Geidam and Kanamma, killing a policeman. The attackers targeted police stations and took their weapons, chiefly AK-47 assault rifles, which they then used against security forces. Following this initial confrontation with the security forces in Kanamma on 31 December, the militants attacked three police stations in the Yobe state capital Damaturu and set fire to a government building there. A further battle with the security forces took place on the outskirts of Maiduguri, 135 km east of Damaturu, the following day.
The militants are self-professed admirers of the Taliban in Afghanistan. They flew flags bearing the word "Afghanistan" during their brief occupation of Kanamma.
The attacks marked the first time the movement has been known to take up arms. This was the first armed push for an Islamic regime in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north since 12 states in the region - including Yobe - began adopting the Islamic Shariah legal code in 1999. At least 10,000 people fled their homes in northeastern Nigeria over the two weeks following clashes in the region between the security forces and armed Islamic militants.
