HISTORY OF ABU SAYYAF

Abu Sayyaf (in Arabic meaning “Bearer of the Sword”) was founded in 1991 in Basilan Province by the Philippine national, Abdurajak Janjalani as a radical splinter group from the Moro National Liberation Front which wished to Islamicize the Moro identity. The current leader is reported to be Abdurajak Janjalani’s younger brother, Khadafi Janjalani. The group consists of what the press calls "bandits", primarily recruited out of high school and universities, who seize hostages for money, hijack religion to gain local support. The group is also involved in piracy, operating alongside Al Qaeda,extorting from companies and wealthy businessmen, and attack the Catholic community through abductions of priests, nuns, and teachers. This group has terrorized the Southern Philippines through bombings, massacres, and links to international terrorist plots and leaders. Abu Sayyaf resides primarily on the island of Mindanao, but has ventured as far as Malaysia. The goal of Abu Sayyaf is to establish an independent, Iranian style, Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Islands in the southern Philippines. Other goals of Abu Sayyaf include improving the life of ethnic Filipinos in Malaysia and the release of World Trade Center bomber Ramsey Yousef, who trained the group in explosives. Abu Sayyaf first mobilized in 1991 with the bombing of a ship in Zamboanga harbor also with a grenade attack on Christian missionaries during that time. In the beginning, Abu Sayyaf remained primarily domestic, however, on April 23rd, 2000, the group became an international threat when they took numerous foreigners and international journalists hostage for ransom in Sipadan. After Janjalani’s death in 1998, Abu Sayyaf split into three less focused groups that participated mostly in murders and kidnappings not terror attacks against Christians. After receiving $25 million in ransom money from Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi, the Libyan leader, in 2000 to free kidnapped hostages, the group used this money to finance an increase in arms, recruitment, and buy speedboats for kidnappings. This lead to an increase in members, due to the attractive salary and weaponry. From the years 2000-2002 Abu Sayyaf embarked on a series of kidnappings of Philippine Christians and foreign nationals. The bloodiest years of victims of Abu Sayyaf took place between 2001-2003 in the Southern Philippines, when the group was reported to have killed over 300 government soldiers and kidnapped at least 140 people. Today, Abu Sayyaf is thought to possess around a hundred core members, with supporters amounting to approximately a thousand. Seeing as the group’s membership is always changing, it is difficult to attain accurate numbers of membership.