Do you know your Boko Haram from your Islamic State group, your Nusra Front from your al-Shabab?

Keeping track of who's who in the world of militant groups can be a challenge.

So here is the International Business Times unedited handy guide:


Boko Haram

Let's start with Boko Haram - the terrorist group that's been wreaking havoc in Africa's most populous country. The Nigerian militants are responsible for a six-year campaign of targeted bombings, assassinations and abductions, killing 50 Friday alone. The group's name can be translated as "Western Education Is Forbidden," and it's become infamous for kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls and a vicious insurgency that's claimed the lives of thousands.

More recently, it's rebranded, swearing allegiance to the Islamic State group and renaming itself the Islamic State's West Africa Province. In March, an audio message by an Islamic State group representative announced that Boko Haram's pledge had been accepted by the militant group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and went on to congratulate "our jihadi brothers" in West Africa.

"It's been a courtship that has been a long time coming," J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center of the Atlantic Council, an international-affairs think tank based in Washington, said in an interview with International Business Times. "It's as close to a marriage of equals as we've ever seen."

The alliance grants Boko Haram legitimacy in the world of Islamic extremism - a world where recruiting, funding and marketing are as important as in any corporation.


Islamic State/ISIS

Possibly the most infamous, and diabolical, of all Islamist groups, the Islamic State group started from humble beginnings as an offshoot of al Qaeda in Iraq more than a decade ago. In 2006, it rebranded as ISIS. Nine years later, the militant group has seized territory stretching from northern Syria to central Iraq and its former allies have disowned it. After months of feuding, al Qaeda formally announced its separation from the group in February 2014.

A statement by al Qaeda general command declared that the Islamic State group "is not a branch of the al Qaeda group ... does not have an organizational relationship with it and [al Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions."


Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda is the granddaddy of the terrorist groups. Founded by Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, the group's goal has always been to establish an independent Islamic state across the Middle East and reject any political or social activity associated with Western society. Since the Islamic State group has taken center-stage, al Qaeda has concentrated more on its affiliates in the region.


Nusra Front/AQAP/AQIM/Al-Shabab

It's difficult to keep tabs on the many acronyms of different militant groups. The groups above [Nusra Front/AQAP/AQIM/Al-Shabab] are listed together because they've all sworn allegiance to al Qaeda.


Taken together, these groups have succeeded in terrorizing civilian populations around the world. To know them is not to condone them - but understanding how they work is essential to learning how to end them.


The M+G+R Foundation comments

It should be obvious to most readers that nothing or no one, but God, can stop them because satan is their master puppeteer.

On the other side of the virtual street satan has also been working hard. Remember when all of those people - now militants - where under the control of strong hand leaders, which we called dictators? Guess who freed them from the iron clad control of their varied rulers? We, the West did it out of a vast geopolitical ignorance, an ignorance which satan has exploited to the maximum.

Didn't he? Now both sides of the virtual street are fighting each other to death.

Well, we do have news for all - and we mean ALL:


Unfortunately that will not happen ...because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold [Matthew 24:12] which is why Jesus pondered: But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth? [Luke 18:8] to which we respond: Yes, You will find it but in precious few. However, we must still thank God for such "precious few" because ...unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened [Matthew 24:22].


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