Bring Back Our Girls

By: American Decency Staff

There has been perhaps no recent international incident which has captured as much attention as Boko Haram's recent kidnapping of almost 300 Nigerian school girls as they took their exams last month. According to CBCNews, "students from other schools were brought into one school for final exams last month after all schools in Borno state were shut because of attacks by Islamic extremists."  And that is when the Islamic extremists swept in, kidnapping the courageous students.

The atrocity is compounded by news that the girls, who are aged between 15 and 18, are being sold to be "brides" to members of the terrorist organization the very name of which – "Boko Haram" – is translated "Western education is sinful." A life of hard labor and sex slavery is all that these girls – described by the New York Times as "the stars of their families and villages" because of their school attendance – may now have to look forward to.

Reactions by millions of horrified men and women around the world have no doubt been gratifying to the bereft families as they have expressed their outrage via social media sites, tagging their reactions "#BringBackOurGirls" to ensure that Nigerian officials know what the international community expects of them.

It is certainly a tragedy that the eyes of the world would be brought to Boko Haram in this way, but the attention paid is past due.

What is not so widely reported is that Boko Haram's attacks were likely religiously motivated.

Persecution.org cites a local evangelist's list of confirmed abducted girls which classified 163 girls who were known to be Christians and only 15 girls who were known to be Muslims. "'Chibok local government is 90% Christian. Majority of the girls abducted are Christian! Why did Boko Haram visit Chibok local government? Why didn't they visit so many other local governmnet girls secondary schools in Borno State?'" The terror organization has said that the girls have been forced to convert to Islam and Boko Haram has a long record of attacking Christian villages and churches.

Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), explained to Voice of America News: “When Boko Haram started up to about a year ago, the people that they primarily targeted and are still targeting are Christians. It is churches that they were bombing [and] it is Christian businesses they were destroying. It is just in the last one year that they started going after Muslims, and it is not all Muslims,” said Oritsejafor.

“They go after two sets of Muslims. One: those who do not agree with their doctrine, because they see them as infidels like they see Christians as infidels. Two: they go after some Muslims that they believe are betraying in the sense of giving information to security agents. They also go after these Muslims,” said Oritsejafor.

In fact, Fox News reports that, "From January 2012 to July 2013, Boko Haram’s religiously-motivated attacks have claimed the lives of at least 366 people. They have bombed, burned or attacked more than 50 churches.

Their attacks are not limited to just Christians; the terrorist group has also carried out 23 targeted attacks on clerics or senior Islamic figures critical of Boko Haram, killing at least 60 people.

Majok (program manager for Nigeria projects with Christian Solidarity International)says Boko Haram’s goal is to rule Nigeria as an Islamic state. 'The country’s president is a Christian from the south and that set them off [because] how could a Christian be the president in a country where there are Muslims?'"

The kidnapping is more that a human rights violation, it is also religious persecution. These girls are more than just some girls we feel sorry for. Many of them are our Christian sisters who are suffering for the sake of Christ. They need more than our hashtags. They need our prayers.

As the Nigerian government with the help of the international community seeks to return these girls to their families, let us do as the author of Hebrews commands, "Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body."

==========================================================

To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412.  

American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

---