Boko Haram is just what its words say: "Books Forbidden." They are the posterboys for illiteracy and mindless evil and their leader speaks directly to Allah, he says. No books needed there; he knows "pure" Islam.
Boko Haram was founded by Mohammad Yusuf in 2002, with the mission of establishing a "pure" Islamic state ruled by Sharia Law, fighting against anything that it thinks "western." Since their founding, this cult has exacted 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013. The figures for 2014 are not compiled yet, although their latest caper was to abduct 275 girls from a Nigerian boarding school. Rumor has it that they have crossed borders from Nigeria into other neighboring lawless states where they are selling the girls as "wives" (slaves) for as little as $12 a piece. Yes, Chad and Sudan still host active slave markets, a practiced ignored by the Organization of Muslim States.
Both Nigerian Christian and Muslim parents are frantic and demand that their government do something to bring back the girls and wipe out Boko Haram. Nigeria, for all its oil wealth, is unable to carry out such a mission and has been, until now, too ashamed to ask for help.
This terror cult has attacked Christian and government targets. Nigeria is where Christians and Muslims recruit and conflict. The Islamists have bombed churches, police stations, and have kidnapped western tourists whom they exchange for ransom. They also go after particular Muslims whose views they do not like. Nigeria has failed to rein in the Islamists in the north, and now this movement has given rise to something even worse. Who is funding clothes, food, water, and toilets for 300 girls?
Their worldview is derived from the already growing Muslim literalism in Northern Nigeria. The world was shocked some years ago when Sharia Law was instituted in supposedly secular Nigeria, demanding the stoning of adulteresses, beatings for not covering up, and amputations of limbs of thieves.
No comments:
Post a Comment