Ali are as much as ten years old when he kept Saudi Arabia, and this was at the newest late 70s to middle-80s when violent extremism wasn’t problems when you look at the Saudi Arabia
Using their unanimous accounts, of the 1994 – when his so-called stay static in Sudan began – Ali got simply registered junior secondary school shortly after doing top college in the early young ones. The accounts agree or fit one another in almost any procedure detail away from Ali’s very early lives, his path to Boko Haram, and his legacy on classification. They certainly were unanimous that Ali got never read otherwise trained in Sudan, or fought in the Afghanistan. They understand this because these were having him in school otherwise in Maiduguri on the period under consideration.
If Ali turned into radicalized in the adolescent decades from the 90s, it could continue to have come extremely unrealistic to possess your for received a worldwide passport and you can a charge, travelled to Sudan, and fulfilled bin Stuffed or his deputies. Perhaps even moreover, it is impractical you to definitely bin Filled would have invested step 3 million euros when you look at the an al-Qaeda offshoot during the Nigeria led by an unskilled teen.
Ali came into this world so you can Nigerian migrant workers inside Saudi Arabia within the this new late seventies and you will gone back to their family members’ home when you look at the Maiduguri at around 10 years old. He went to the fresh College or university of Maiduguri Group First University, and you can received ideal grades in his secondary school last reports at the Federal government College, Maiduguri. Based on Gana and you can Kabir, Ali focused on new pure sciences. When you look at the 1999, the guy sat towards Nigerian universities’ joint access test and applied into University of Maiduguri. Gana and you can Balarabe, exactly who sat for the very same examination in identical seasons, mentioned that Ali obtained the highest scratches in Borno Believe that seasons and you will is actually admitted to review drug in the College or university from Maiduguri, where both learnt. However, Ali declined to sign up as he previously by this go out feel associated with significant Islamic circles during the Maiduguri. In the attention of the members of this type of circles, Western-concept schooling are taboo, which became a major motif to have Boko Haram. Ali denied repeated advice out-of his class mates and coaches to start his college education – also off Gana – and you may opted alternatively so you can care about-data and promote an extreme interpretation out-of Islam.
All interviewees discussed Ali since the an extremely brilliant individual. “He had been the smartest individual I’ve seen,” said Gana. And it’s also best out-of his class, Ali has also been most acquainted with Islamic theology and you will jurisprudence, particularly for their age. He’d memorized the complete or big components of the newest Qur’an, most likely from inside the Saudi Arabia just before the guy transferred to Nigeria, and you can are active in the Muslim People Association of his additional college in which the guy supported as the deputy chairman. Once his supplementary studies, Ali proceeded to analyze Islam informally in Maiduguri and you may first started preaching so you can more youthful Nigerians, especially in Salafi groups.
The 3 witnesses which I interviewed argue that Ali are life style and how to use alt discovering with them in the or just around Maiduguri from 1992 so you can mid-2003, when he moved from the area on villages where his group clashed having cover forces and you will where he was then murdered
Reading the Qur’an is not in any way synonymous with radicalization so you’re able to criminal extremism, otherwise the majority of the almost several million Muslims from the globe – as well as me personally – is unlawful extremists. His lifestyle an everyday lives when you look at the Nigeria immediately after their get back up to his graduation off senior high school within the 1998 is yet another piece of facts you to Ali didn’t exit Saudi Arabia a violent extremist.
