There is nothing religious about kidnapping schoolgirls.
There should be no mercy spared for these Nigerian cowards who administer their brand of “religious freedom,” with assault rifles pointed at their young victims.
Boko Haram, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2013, abducted more than 270 girls on April 15 from a school in the northeast town of Chibok, Nigeria.
One abducted Nigerian teen calls the kidnapping ‘too terrifying for words.’
Boko Haram, whose name means, “Western education is sinful,” has claimed responsibility for the abduction, and members have threatened to sell the girls, who they first described as “slaves.”
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls won’t be freed until imprisoned Boko Haram fighters are released. So far, the Nigerian government has rejected the girls’ freedom in exchange for prisoners.
“I swear to almighty Allah you will not see them again until you release our people that you have captured,” the leader said.
Boko Haram has been waging a violent campaign in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim northern states since 2009, fighting to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state in the name of religious freedom.
Shekau’s style of religious freedom comes courtesy with assault rifles pointed at their victims. Shekau claims the girls have been “converted,” to Islam.
In video clips, two girls are asked, “Why have you become a Muslim?”
“The reason why I became a Muslim is because the path we are on is not the right path,” she answers. “We should enter the right path so that Allah will be happy with us.”
So far, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have provided support for the Nigerian government. France, China and Israel have offered to supply specialist teams to find the missing girls.
Canada’s New Democratic Party started an emergency debate Monday, to consider a response to the mass kidnappings.
“This is the very definition of an emergency,” said Paul Dewar. “Hundreds of young innocent lives are at stake, along with the political and social direction of a country and a region.”
Citizens around the world have been using social media to keep Boko Haram and missing girls in the spotlight, under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Jim Misunas