Thread by @bulamabukarti

The Nigerian Army said today that it has dispersed a commune called Darus Salam in Toto LGA of Nasarawa State. That 410 members, mostly women and children, have surrendered and some weapons have been recovered. Darus Salam is a separatist religious group, but it differs from BH.

It’s a radical group with similar ideology with BH, but it’s non-violent. They believe that Nigeria is soiled with corruption, unbelief & unchastity that one can’t be true Islam there. So it’s incumbent on members to migrate and worship God away from the dirt of cities and towns.

Around the mid-2000s, ideologists of Darus Salam, including their leader Amir Bashir Abdullahi, had debated the founder of Boko Haram Muhammad Yusuf, and declared Yusuf a disbeliever for staying in Maiduguri. Yusuf in turn tagged them disbelievers for holding “too extreme” views.

In 2009, after Boko Haram’s first clash with security forces, Darus Salam was dislodged without violence from their compound outside the town of Mokwa, Niger State, where 3,000-4,000 adherents lived. Apparently, the same group had reassembled in Nasarawa State.

It’s important that to understand that this commune is different from the Shekau-led cell in the north-central though some of them might’ve joined Shekau. Dispersing Darus Salam shouldn’t be mistake for dislodging Shekau’s cell. The pursuit of the latter must continue.

Update: multiple sources in Nasarawa and Abuja just informed that members of Darus Salam that were raided by the Nigerian Army have been attacking and kidnapping people. This shows that the group might have hardened as we saw in groups that graduated from nonviolence to violence.