Omar Hamaha is a one-man whirlwind of piety and fury. For more than a decade he has been accused of raiding government outposts in Mauritania, Algeria and Niger; he has allegedly held Western hostages for extravagant ransoms, and without any doubt preached a ferocious asceticism through the barrel of a gun as he proselytized across the region. Riding with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, he crisscrossed the shadowless Sahara in the service of a god he envisioned as unforgiving as the desert itself. He invoked Koranic verses to protect himself from the evil work of devils and the biting of snakes and scorpions, learned to navigate by the sun, moon and stars, and believed that meteor showers were battles between djinns and angels. It has been a ferocious transformation for a former student of accounting.
Since April, Hamaha, a man with a flaming red tuft of a beard and an oratorical style to match, has emerged as one of the most visible figures of the Islamist takeover of Malis ethnic Tuareg rebellioneven though he is an ethnic Arab. Clad in a camouflage smock and turban and clutching his Kalashnikov, he has become a familiar sight on the streets of Timbuktu. Residents say he mixes his fiery sermons with small acts of kindness and poses for photos. He is implacably bound to a 21st Century re-imagining of 7th Century Islam. We are fighting in the name of religion, he tells TIME by phone from Timbuktu, in one of several conversations over recent weeks that paint a rare portrait of the jihadist. You know, he says, Our struggle has just begun.
He has championed the demolition of several Muslim mausoleums that UNESCO had declared historic. He said the destruction was justified on the grounds that those who believe in the veneration of such shrines are driven by Satan. On Tuesday, the Islamists in Timbuktu reportedly destroyed two more tombs at the 14th Century Djingareyber mosque.Its forbidden by Islam to pray on tombs and ask for blessings, says Hamaha, Ansar Eddine is showing the rest of world, especially Western countries, that whether they want it or not, we will not let the younger generation believe in shrines as God, regardless of what the U.N., UNESCO, International Criminal Court or ECOWAS [the Economic Community of West African States] have to say. We do not recognize these organizations. The only thing we recognize is the court of God, sharia. Sharia is a divine obligation, people dont get to choose whether they like it or not.
Officially, Hamaha, who is in his late 40s, is the military chief of Ansar Eddine, the predominantly Tuareg, Salafist outfit that emerged from the slipstream of a secular Tuareg rebellion before quickly supplanting it. But he has become the loudest proponent of jihad. Our war is a holy war, not one of frontiers and limits, he thundered in one video posted on YouTube earlier this year. We are the mujahedin. Holy war!
Ya know how long ago that was? And because Christians did it centuries ago it's okay for Muslims to do it today.......? 
