Boko Haram Update: Conversion and Prisoner Exchange

May 12, 2014

Boko Haram Update: Conversion and Prisoner Exchange

by Deanna Fisher in Cultural Issues 3 Comments

In an update to the ongoing story of the kidnapped Nigerian school girls, the BBC is reporting (courtesy of a video obtained by French news agency AFP) that that the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has announced that he is willing to exchange some of the girls for currently imprisoned militants. There is a HUGE catch, though – they will only trade non-Muslim girls.

And in the video, 136 girls are shown making Islamic declarations of faith.

From the BBC report:

“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with… we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” Abubakar Shekau says in the video.

He said his offer to swap the girls for imprisoned militants only referred to the children who had not converted to Islam.

It is thought the majority of the abducted girls are Christians, although there are a number of Muslims among them.

A man who is related to three of the abducted girls said the video at first gave him hope, but then made him anxious and tearful.

“Maybe they are converted into another religion by force, so it truly is a kind of terrifying situation,” said the man, who did not want to be named.

I highly doubt that the Christian girls “spontaneously” converted to Islam. Call me a cynic, but when a man with a gun points it at you and demands that you declare – in Arabic – that there is no God but Allah, and that man is your kidnapper… you just might do it to not be killed.

And if Boko Haram will not exchange these “Muslim” girls, but only the Christian ones… I doubt there will soon be any “Christian” girls left to trade.

Boko Haram conversion islam kidnapping Nigeria prisoner exchange schoolgirls terrorism terrorists

Written by Deanna Fisher

3 Comments

VALman says:

May 12, 2014 at 1:16 pm

It’s a sad and tragic situation, no doubt. Maybe, there are some in this country who ought to take a few moments of reflection about this, especially before they come off with their knee-jerk charges of racism in this land.

Reply
Recovering Lutheran says:

May 12, 2014 at 2:07 pm

9/11 Truther Nafeez Ahmed says that the kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian girls by Boko Haram was really caused by … wait for it … global warming.

Reply
- Xavier says:
  
  May 12, 2014 at 3:36 pm
  
  Here’s a couple articles about Nigeria. I particularly like this quote:
  
  “USAID programs support equitable access to quality basic education through teacher training, support for girls’ learning, infrastructure improvement, community involvement, and reading and literacy skills development. The programs target public, Qur’anic and Islamiyya schools. Qur’anic schools focus on learning the Qur’an and Islamic values while Islamiyya schools integrate classes to build skills in reading local language and numeracy into the traditional Qur’anic curriculum.”
  
  http://www.usaid.gov/nigeria/education
  
  http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jun/13/nigeria-larger-population-us-2050
  
  Reply