As the Boko Haram terrorist organization rules the Central African villages, with each kidnapping they are gaining strength. In late May of 2014 the Boko Haram committed its most intense kidnapping. They raided a school in midday and took almost 200 girls. To this day no one has a clue where these girls are or what they are experiencing.

             On Monday the 19^th the leader of this terrorist group released a shocking video of what his future plans were with the kidnapped girls. While in a full army suit and an Ak-47 by his side he reads into the camera, “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market; by Allah There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.” While watching this video in complete confussion, I realized that the man behind the video is laughing casually while telling his plans of selling off young women.

            The Boko Haram name means "Western education is sin." In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end. In recent years, Boko Haram has carried out dozens of attacks, killing thousands of people at schools, churches, police stations, government buildings and elsewhere. These are some of the major attempts to stop education. Boko Haram has gained training in weapons and communications from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in recent years. This helped it move from little-noticed attacks to more spectacular ones, including against Western targets and the Nigerian government, which it seeks to overthrow.

            On January 10, 2015 across the seas in Africa the extremist group “Boko Haram” has struck again. This terrorist group is notoriously known for kidnapping young defenseless children and forcing them promote the ideal Muslim society. Boys are most likely to be transformed into a mindless killing machine and girls are being married off and used in the sex trafficking business.  In the case, a little girl no more than 10 years old gave up her life to pursue a suicide bombing mission instructed by the Boko Haram. As she walked into the crowded northern Nigerian Market, the bombs hidden underneath her veil detonated, killing 20 innocent people and wounding many more.

People were shocked as they were represented with a new tactic in the Islamists’ campaign with their decision to use perhaps their youngest-ever suicide bomber.

            To the people of Africa, this terrorist organization has been motivated to increase the number of girls being kidnapped. The Boko Haram is now using women as suicide bombers, even as it has stepped up its abductions of girls across northeast Nigeria.

            This Market place did have security and making sure that people were safe. As the little girl approached and the men screened her with the metal detectors they noticed bulging in her hip region. The girl resisted being restrained and patted down, but it was too late and before security was able to pat her down the bombs had already gone off killing 20 and injuring 18.

Due to all of the recent terrorist attacks in Africa, police and security guards can no longer trust anyone. Now, one has to be suspicious of any lady wearing a hijab — whether it’s a young lady, or an old lady.

This story reminds me much of how Ishmael in the book “A Long Way Gone” was kidnapped and instructed to do nearly the same thing as the little girl. Ishmael was kidnapped by the rebels and forced to put his own life in danger to make sure he was satisfying the rebels.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/africa/suicide-bomber-hits-maiduguri-nigeria-market.html?_r=0&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Africa&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article

On December 31^st of 2014 Northeastern Nigeria had a very chilling encounter with the well known terrorist organization Boko Haram. Mohammed Yusuf, a charismatic young cleric, founded the group 12 years ago as part of his push for a pure Islamic state in Nigeria. He was killed in 2009, but his group lived on. These rebels are an extremist Islamic group in Nigeria that have created havoc across the north of the country and in the capital, Abuja. Its violent attacks on government offices, the United Nations, and churches threaten to destabilize the country. A range of conflicting narratives has grown up around Boko Haram, and the group’s origins, motivations, and future plans remain a matter of debate. They had barged into the village of Malari and kidnapped 40 boys and young men as hostages.

Next, we may ask ourselves why did this extremist group forcibly take 40 hostages and kill none.

            They have a recent past of kidnapping children as a way of campaigning fear into the citizens. The main belief as to why they are doing this is to recruit and mentally brainwash these younger boys. They will try to influence them and turn against their own people. As they proceed to convince young boys into becoming rebels, the girls are not forgotten. Some girls and women are kidnapped to take the place of wives, and perform chores and sexual services, according to rights groups. They deliberately raid schools knowing they will successfully kidnap and transform these children into slaves.

            This could very easily be related to a situation in the novel “A Long Way Gone.”  While running for his life, Ishmael Beah is captured by soldiers fighting rebels and forced to become one of them. In the process of transforming Ishmael into a rebel killing child they influence him into different drugs and disturbing facts that change his point of view. Ishmael is made into an animal in a matter of days and prepared to kill people just because he is instructed to do so.

Making History

Boko Haram is a name commonly written throughout this blog. People may believe that this is just some random group trying to make a name for themselves, but that would be entirely wrong. They have a definite count of 10,000 killings just last year alone, and that's only the people that have been taken account for. There's absolutely no way to tell how many could actually have been killed. Not only those who have lost their lives, but think about the people who have had to flee their homelands because of this radical group. Imagine the children who are now orphans because of them. Remember the people who have tried to regain their freedom and have suffered a casualty throughout the fight. This number of deaths is completely out of control, but what is more out of control is the fact that no one is stopping it. 

Who is to say this isn't a genocide? Women and children are constantly targeted just because of who they are. Religion is always an issue to these people too. No woman should be afraid to sleep in their own home. No child should lose their innocence at such a young age. Boko Haram has affected the government so much too. It is now weak. Nigeria was once a prosperous place. Now it is so far from that, it is hard to

imagine ever returning.

 

This extremist group takes up 30,000 square kilometers, which is similar to the size of Belgium. Not only are they large and strong, but they take advantage of the people. They are calling the area "Muslim Territory." 

The part that sickens me the most is that they are starving the citizens. People have been left to survive on merely raw rice and squash. 

These events remind me of Hotel Rwanda because the Hutu rebels took the same actions as Boko Haram. Death. Starvation. Kidnappings. Fear. All were caused by these 2 groups and carried out onto people who are just like them. 

To anyone who reads this, it should make you angry. It most definitely makes me angry. Why aren't we doing anything? What can we do to make this pain end? We all must see ourselves in the children on the other side of the world. We must feel the anguish of the man who lost his father to these monsters. We have to stand up for them. If we choose otherwise, then who will? 

 

Why?

Why?

            In researching this topic the only question that truly comes to mind is why? Why is a terror group hurting young children and making them fight. In the book a Long Way Gone Ishmael talks about being a child soldier. The children were so young they couldn't even hold their weapons. In this article a survivor of an attack talks about how evil Boko Haram is and the “reason” behind their doings. Boko Haram stands for Western education is a sin. The group kidnapped over two hundred and thirty school girls. The group opposes women’s education much like in the book Mala. The group truly believes a woman’s job is to stay home and please the husband. So to get their point across they kidnapped many school girls forced them to convert to Islam and married them off. Imagine, sending your child to school, and never returning. In February of 2014 Boko Haram killed at least twenty nine students who were either Christian or Muslim. They are almost creating genocide; either join them or get killed. In the movie Hotel Rwanda the Hutu Rebels main goal was to kill anyone who wasn't like them. Much like Boko Haram’s main campaign goal. Sickening. The young boy survivor named Daniel Ayuba goes on to question why too. No one has a right answer. There are reasons behind Boko Haram’s doings but they are not truly justified to the human injustice taking place. 

In the picture above Daniel Ayuba was in the middle of a deadly bomb attack, luckily he survived but the horrid memories still stay the same. Looking at him, one would think to themselves how could a person so evil do this to a child and/or anyone. Nothing is justified. Here is a video of Daniels experiences due to Boko Haram : http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/24/world/africa/nigeria-kidnapping-answers/

            I was actually very curious about the Islamic religion. So I looked up everything to know about it. It is hard for me to imagine how cruel people could be who are so strongly involved with God. All other religions state that you honor each other, never hurt your neighbors. Islam is ironically the religion of freedom of choice. They have twisted everything up. But, in the bible for Islam’s is says killing is permitted when it is just. Which means to them they have the power to kill anyone who doesn't convert. They believe Muhammed gave them the power to kill. In the bible Muhammed killed many people that is why it is okay. Here is a website comparing both Christianity and Islamic I found to be very interesting : http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/157827
Boko Haram is “justified through their religion.” But, why still kill and torture children who at their age don’t even know what true religion is? 

Child Rights

In this video, UNICEF news tells about the Central African abductions and violence that occurs quite often. Apparently, men in neighboring towns set out to take children from their homes and use them for ransom money. 

The video uses the example of 2 young children that were held captive for 2 years before their parents could save enough money to bring them back home.  The children are emotionally scarred and refuse to go into their old home. If anything ever reminds them of their time in captivity, they immediately shut down and do not speak. They have asked their parents not to talk about anything to do with what they went through, for it is too painful for them. 

The children of this family were not alone. All of the kids feared being beaten or sexually assaulted constantly. These children that are held captive are not all taken back home either. Some just stay with their kidnappers and endure constant fear. 

UNICEF is a well-known organization. Their role in this is that they try and educate the people of these small towns about children's rights. They tell that children should not be used in a militia or have to worry about being beaten simply because twisted individuals want to goal them for ransom. They are trying their very best to prevent these violent and inhumane events from occurring. 

Children are the future, whether the people of the world want to believe it or not. So by treating them as anything less than what they deserve, the perpetrators are only hurting themselves. 

Western Influence

What makes Islamic Extremists despise the western world so much? The question seems to be simple, yet I don't think the answers are. 

 Officials know the reason that Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001: the towers were a symbol of capitalism. Capitalism is something that most of the extremist groups have in common because they loathe it. 

"Haram" is translated to 'forbidden'. This means that the members of this disastrous group are not allowed to take part in any political or social activity that is associated within the western world. 

What do these two groups have in common? Western influence is rejected in both of them. They are disgraced by the way we teach our children, work for a living, and basically how we lead our lives. 

Americans are aware of how powerful our influence can be, of course. But most do not see that it's not all perfect in the eyes of the rest of the world. As insane as it sounds, some parts do not believe in some of the most basic rights that our country was established upon. America is not also always right, and I think we're aware of that. Yet, in some cases, our way of life is the only way to prevent events like kidnapping girls and converting them to a new religion and marrying them off from happening. 

So we, as Americans, must try and put ourselves in the shoes of those who do not agree with our ways. Nothing will ever make what this extremist group did okay, but we must understand that not everyone is like us. The world is different and changing.