Can you imagine the uproar there would be if a terrorist group attacked, for example, Mother of Mercy High School, or Seton, or McCauley, or St. Ursula, and kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls, and held them captive for weeks, without the authorities being able to figure out where they were being held? And further, that some of the young girls, against their will, were being sold off as child brides?
Well, that’s exactly what happened in Nigeria – THREE WEEKS AGO. And much of the international press has collectively yawned. At least until the terrorist group’s leader released a video a couple days ago saying he was selling the girls, essentially into slavery. Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the terrorist group, said “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market… Allah said I should sell them. He commands me to sell them.” This got the press’s attention, and the horrific event has finally started to get the attention it should have gotten from the start.
I have twice before devoted my weekly blog to particularly heinous attacks on civilians by Boko Haram, the militant Islamic terrorist group whose name means “Western education is sinful.” Although they haven’t exclusively targeted schools, Western schools have been particularly susceptible to attack. You can read my two previous blogs, both attacks on schools, by clicking here and here.
These radical Islamic terrorists seek the imposition of sharia law on Nigeria, which is the most populous country in Africa, 170 million people (more than half the population of the United States.) The northern portion of Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, the south Christian. Boko Haram has been attacking Western influence in the country, and has been particularly brutal against Christian targets. It’s estimated that more than 5,000 innocent civilians have been murdered since 2010 by Boko Haram.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian government has been ineffective in combatting this threat. The families of the most recent victims have been critical of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (not a particularly accurate name at this time) for not seeking outside help in combatting Boko Haram. Secretary of State John Kerry stated several days ago “The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime. President Obama yesterday stated that “We’re going to do everything we can to assist them (the Nigerian government) in recovering these young women.”
At this time, that apparently consists of providing advisors on hostage-taking situations, but no agreement on the use of drones for example to track down just where the girls are being held (those that haven’t already been sold off as slaves or child brides.)
It’s important to note that the same mindset that allowed the murder and kidnapping of innocent school children in Nigeria has long been at work through the Taliban in Afghanistan. Under Taliban rule there, girls were prohibited from receiving an education, and the savagery directed at Western education in Nigeria should be familiar. How to defeat these barbarians, and whether the world even has the stomach to try, remains to be seen.
Boko Haram by the way, is another Al-Qaeda affiliate. You remember Al-Qaeda, the group we’ve allegedly got on the run. Osama bin Laden might be dead and GM alive, but it’s metastasized into deadly groups all over the globe. And we ignore this threat at our own peril.
