Bay‘a (Oath of Allegiance) to the Caliph of the Muslims

(7 MARCH 2015) [Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim] Available at: http://jihadology.net/2015/03/07/al-urwah-al-wuthqa-foundation-presents-a-new-audio-message-from-jamaat-ahl-al-sunnah-li-l-dawah-wa-l-jihads-boko-%e1%b8%a5aram-abu-bakr-shekau-bayah-jama/ It had long been anticipated that Boko Haram would swear allegiance to the Islamic State, if only because the former had been mimicking the actions of the latter for months by the spring of 2015 (see text 48). This oath of allegiance made it official, and completed Boko Haram’s adoption into the larger family of Salafi-jihadi groups. An earlier indication of Boko Haram’s adoption into the larger family of Salafi-jihad groups reflected in the mention of Abubakar Shekau alongside Nasir al-Wuhayshi of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Abu Zubayr of al-Shabab in Somalia in the letter on al-Qaeda/Islamic State rivalry written on 17 August 2014 by Abu ‘Iyad al-Tunisi of Ansar al-Shari’a Tunisia to Ayman az-Zawahiri prior to Boko Haram’s allegiance to the Islamic State. In what appears to be an unprecedented celebration of allegiance by Islamic State’s provinces...