Abu Sayyaf Group is a violent Muslim rebel movement in the Philippines. It is based in the western part of the island of Mindanao and in the Sulu archipelago (group of islands). The name Abu Sayyaf means father of the swordsman in Arabic. The Abu Sayyaf Group, often abbreviated as ASG, is also known as Al-Harakatul al-Islamiya (the Islamic movement).
The ASG has used bombings, beheadings, kidnappings, and assassinations in an effort to raise money and establish an Islamic state. In 2000, the ASG captured dozens of hostages in Malaysia and freed them for ransom. In 2004, the ASG killed more than 100 people when it bombed a ferry in Manila Bay.
The ASG began around 1991 as an extremist group within the Moro National Liberation Front, an Islamic separatist movement in the southern Philippines. Abdu-rajak Abubakar Janjalani, a fisherman’s son who became a Muslim scholar after studying in Saudi Arabia and Libya, led the group. Janjalani and his followers were part of the resistance movement from 1979 to 1989 against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The resistance was small at first, but grew much larger after being secretly funded, armed, and organized by the United States, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. The ASG’s name honors the Afghan resistance leader, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. During the resistance, Janjalani and his followers established links with the terrorist networks al-Qa`ida and Jemaah Islamiyah.
Janjalani’s preachings linked suffering, social injustice, extreme poverty, and the economic failures of the Philippines with the need to establish an Islamic state. He urged members of the ASG to fight and die to achieve this goal. After Janjalani was killed by Filipino government forces in 1998, his younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, took over as the head of the ASG. In January 2007, officials announced that Khaddafy Janjalani had died in September 2006.
