Nazir
Nortei Alema, a 25-year- old graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University
of Science and Technology (KNUST) has thrown his family into a
health-threatening stress, as he joins the swelling ranks of the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist organisation.
With a
degree in Geography and Rural Development, he is one of the 10
suspected Muslim youth from Ghana who have finally taken the decision to
join the terrorist grouping, whose stock-in-trade is public beheading
of their opponents or those they regard as infidels, attracting a
worldwide opprobrium.
Their decision has activated the alarm
bells over a subtle recruitment drive for vulnerable Muslim youth in
especially public tertiary institutions in the country.
Nazir’s
fateful trip to the training grounds of the so-called Islamic State, as
they are derogatively referred to, started on 2nd August 2015, soon
after his completion of the mandatory National Service in Ghana, which
he undertook at the Statistical Service.
Narrating the story of
his son to Daily Guide, Abdul Latif Alema said the young man had earlier
sent a whatsapp message to the family indicating that he was on his way
to Prestea from where he would proceed to Takoradi on an official
assignment.
His brother, Kabiru Alema, who accompanied his father
to the Daily Guide offices yesterday, said a subsequent message negated
the earlier one.
“He said that he had lied to us when he said he
was on his way to Prestea and Takoradi but that the truth is that he
was on his way to join the ISIS,” he said.
Extracts from Nazir’s
whatsapp message, received by Kabir read as follows: “Pray for me, for I
will never forget you in my prayer and it’s my hope and prayer that we
meet again if not in this world then in Jannah (paradise). I love you
all. May Allah grant us understanding and guide us all to the straight
path. Asalaamu alaikum.
“I told you a lie to please my Allah. The
deception was to go do some research work in far away Prestea while the
main idea was to move far away from you all to the Islamic State (IS). I
know it might sound kind of crazy for you but your son really had to
take this bold step to get out of the corrupt system of Ghana which has
democracy first on its list.
You can follow this link to know
about the ‘shirk’ called democracy islamqa.info/en/98134”. As to why the
family is convinced that Nazir has joined the ranks of ISIS, Kabir said
“we are convinced because a couple of his friends have also gone
missing. We went to their
individual houses and discovered that there is no information about their whereabouts.”
Kabir
mentioned the name of a certain Abubakar Mohammed aka Brother, a
first-class product of the KNUST from a popular family in Cowlane, a
suburb of Accra near the General Post Office, who is one those suspected
to have also joined the ISIS.
Continuing, Kabiru said, “The
youth who have fallen prey to the ISIS craze belong to the same whatsapp
group on which they share extreme ideas about Islam.”
The
“Sadaqa Train”, which is the name of the whatsapp group, has been
deactivated after the father of one of the members posed probing
questions to the leader.
Abdul Latif Alema said that not all
members of the whatsapp group however subscribed to the extreme ideas
shared by their colleagues when the group was active.
He went on
to explain that worrying videos have been spotted on his son’s laptop
which give credence to the suspicion that Nazir has been sufficiently
brainwashed online.
One of the pictures showed the procedures for tying the turban.
It
would be recalled that one of the many Muslim youth from Britain who
joined the ranks of the terror organization learnt how to tie the
Islamic male headgear long before he set foot
in Syria to fight for the terrorists.
One
of Nazir’s videos showed kid soldiers undergoing training. Nazir’s
father said his Daily Guide Tuesday, August 25, 2015 son showed so much
extremist inclinations long before departing to join the ISIS.
A
female Muslim student of the University of Ghana, Legon, whose parents
run a forex bureau in Accra Central, according to Kabiru, has told
Naziru’s family that the latter is undergoing training currently, during
which he would remain incommunicado.
She assured them however
that he would be fine, adding that his decision to join ISIS would save
the lives of 70 members of their family.
The lady however warned
them not to disclose her identity, as doing so would imperil their
lives. Kabiru told DAILY GUIDE that a certain Badharn Diallo, a Guinean
who attended the University of Ghana, Legon and joined the ISIS five
months ago, is responsible for the recruitment of these young Ghanaian
Muslims.
Abdul Latif Alema said the need to give this dangerous
trend the necessary publicity cannot be overemphasized, adding that
“parents should take interest in what their children do witha view to
detecting when they are on the verge of falling prey to the machinations
of terrorist organizations.”
As to whether he has reported the
matter to the relevant authorities, he said, “I reported it to a top
official of the National Security Council and the man assured me that
they are working on it at that level.”
The Alema Family hail from Osu, but they have another family house in Tudu opposite the former Central Lorry Park. |
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