The 2017 Marawi Emergency.

On May 22nd (22/5/17) an Islamist suicide bomber attacked the Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) in the UK city of Manchester.

Specifically they attacked the end of a concert by US popstar Ariana Grande which was being performed as part of her Dangerous Woman Tour (DWT). In part this target was chosen in reference to popstar Rihanna's highly political Diamonds World Tour (DWT).

However the MENA bombing was not the only terrorist outrage to occur that day.

In the Philippines which is seven hours ahead of the UK Islamist gunmen seized control of the city of Marawi on the island of Mindanao. They occupied the city's military base, the city hall, the city jail and the city university. They also attacked the city's Catholic Cathedral and seized control of a Catholic Church and a number of Church run schools.

This very closely resembled a specific incident that happened during Rihanna's DWT.

The main objective of Rihanna's DWT was to cause her to suffer some sort of nervous breakdown of similar psychiatric emergency whilst she was performing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 19th 2013 (19/10/13). For reasons that are best just accepted rather than questioned this was supposed to serve as a US apology for Rihanna's role in causing the 2011 Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

With this being the main aim of the tour the issue of Islam and different aspects of Islam ran like a constant thread throughout Rihanna's DWT. For example the April 15th 2013 (15/4/13) Boston Marathon bombings touched on the issue of Islamist terrorism.

Rihanna opened every show with the song; "Mother Mary." This could be taken as a reference to the Virgin Mary - mother of Jesus Christ - a revered figure within particularly Catholic Christianity. She performed on a set that resembled the type of stained glass windows you often find in Christian Churches.

This was intended to promote discussion about encouraging Muslims to convert to Christianity. A criminal offence in a handful of the nations Rihanna visited.

The "Mother Mary" the Rihanna song was actually referencing was the drug Marijuana. The issue of Marijuana use is actually quite an interesting one within Islam. The Qu'ran forbids the use of alcohol and there is a near constant debate whether that prohibition applies only to alcohol or all mind altering substances like Marijuana which might inhibit you ability to communicate with God.

I think it is fair to say that there is nothing about Rihanna's style of dress either in the tour costumes on in life more generally that adheres to Muslim modesty standards.

It turns out that all of the World's roughly 1.7bn Muslims aren't in fact all the same person. Therefore different Muslims have different opinions about different issues. This is often determined by where they live. So Rihanna's World Tour was a bit of a fishing expedition about Muslims attitudes towards the aforementioned issues in North America, Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa etc.

The World's most populous Muslim nation is not in the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region at all. Instead it is the nation of Indonesia in the Asia region. Indonesia shares a land border with Papua New Guinea (PNG). That is a nation closely linked to its neighbour and member of the UK Commonwealth Realm - Australia.

There has long been a large illegal drug and irregular migrant route running from Myanmar (Burma) on the border with Bangladesh through South East Asia to Australia. In order to curb this migrant flow Australia opened two immigration processing centres in PNG in 2001. The objective is to deter irregular migrants but stopping them from ever setting foot in Australia.

For whatever reason Rihanna was not able to arrange a concert in either Indonesia or PNG during the DWT. So instead a concert was arranged in the Philippines for September 19th 2013 (19/9/13). The intention being that the Philippines would stand in for its neighbours to examine the issues of Islam, irregular migration and illegal drug flows in South East Asia.

Rather than being a nation in the traditional sense the Philippines is actually an archipelago made up of around 7,500 separate islands.

Traditionally the residents in the southern islands have been Sunni Muslims while the residents in the northern islands have been Catholic Christians. In the 1930's the Catholics began to move into the southern islands diluting the area's Muslim identity.

Since the late 1960's a group called the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have been fighting an insurgency to turn the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan and Sabah into an independent nation which they wish to call the "The Bangsamoro Nation."

On September 11th 2013 (11/9/13) - 8 days before Rihanna's concert the MNLF launched an attack on Mindanao island. Following an amphibious assault they raised their flag over the city hall in Zamboanga City and declared all of Mindanao island to be part of the independent Bangsamoro Nation. This prompted 20 days of fighting before the Filipino military finally restored control over the city.

This massively complicated the security plan for Rihanna's concert in the Philippines. Although the capital Manila where Rihanna was performing is around 1000km (625 miles) away from Mindanao island and not considered part of the Bangsamoro Nation the terrorist activity created concerns that the MNLF would use the concert to boost publicity for their cause either by bombing the venue or attempting to kidnap Rihanna herself.

Prior to the start of the DWT Rihanna had been forced to hire former US Secret Service agents to provide her with security. The fighting in Mindanao meant those bodyguards suddenly had to devise a plan to either defend Rihanna in situ or evacuate her from the Philippines in the event of a terror attack.

As Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift discovered on May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) evacuating a popstar from the scene of a terror attack requires a bit of planning 

Although they are Muslims the MNLF's cause is a nationalist one rather than an Islamist one. That means they which to establish a nation state rather than and Islamic state.

However in the late 1980's Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden funded the establishment of a Filipino Islamist group called Abu Sayyaf. This created a spilt within the MNLF leading to the creation of the spectacularly acronymed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). They wish to establish an Islamic state.

In 2013 MILF splintered again leading to the creation of another Islamist group known as; "The Maute Group" which is run by the two Maute brothers.

The current fighting in Marawi is being carried out by a mixture of Islamist fighters from the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf.

The MENA bombing was carried out by a Libyan by the name of Salman Abedi. He was acting on the orders of the nation state of Qatar.

Amongst other things this attack was carried out in an attempt to intimidate the UK into ending its calls for an area to the Syria/Turkey border known as; "Garvaghy Road" to be sealed militarily. This area is used by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to escape from Syria via Turkey and on to the rest of the World.

Qatar wants Garvaghy Road open so those ISIL fighters can escape to Libya to assist Qatar in seizing control of that nation and its vast oil reserves. However ISIL has attracted fighters from across the globe including Asian nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Many members of the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf have fought for ISIL. Those fighters are likely to return to Asia rather than travel to Libya.

With the Marawi Emergency beginning at almost exactly the same time as the MENA bombing there was an obvious suspicion that the two events were coordinated. This would serve as double threat by showing that not only were terrorists able to attack the UK mainland they were also able to threaten members of the UK Commonwealth Realm such as Australia.

On June 1st (1/6/17) a gunman burst into the Resorts World hotel complex in Manila. After opening fire on TV's and gaming machines he set fire to the building. This created scenes that were very similar to the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. It was exactly the sort of security situation we had to plan for ahead of Rihanna's 2013 concert in Manila.

Rather than being a terror attack events at Resorts World have been blamed on robbery gone wrong. It was actually directed by British intelligence. Although following the Grenfell Tower fire the UK isn't really in a position to lecture anyone the assumption seemed to be that setting fire to a few gaming tables would not lead to an inferno that ended up killing 35.

The UK's reasons for doing this were twofold.

Firstly Ariana Grande decided to return to Manchester for the "One Love Manchester" charity concert on June 4th (4/6/17). This led to concern amongst the UK security services that this would paint a target on the UK's back inciting another terror take. They wanted to express their displeasure to the US. Due to the June 3rd (3/6/17) London Bridge terror attack those concerns seem well founded.

Secondly the UK wanted to call my attention to the Marawi Emergency. I am very much Britain's go-to-guy when it comes to Rihanna. Particularly when it intersects with the Philippines and Islamist terrorism.

It actually turns out that the Marawi Emergency was inadvertently triggered by the Filipino military. Following intelligence they'd moved into arrest the Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon in Marawi.

However they'd underestimated Abu Sayyaf's strength and appeared to have no knowledge that the Maute Group were active in the city. So the failed raid triggered the emergency as part of Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group's counter-attack.

Although it was just a coincidence the fact that both Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group have now grown much stronger does serve to underline the urgent need for Garvaghy Road to be sealed otherwise we'll be chasing ISIL around the globe for decades to come.

21:20 on 17/6/17 (UK date).