By Sophia Pagnone, Rachel Starling, Licette Renteria, Madison Mercer, and Leila Youssef
Summary
In April 2014, 276 Chibok schoolgirls were kidnapped at gunpoint by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, on the basis of anti-Western attitudes and Islamist extremism, starting the #BringBackOurGirls Movement. Today, 217 girls are currently missing and about 40 of them have been married. This group already has a history of rape, forced marriage, and sex slavery (Maclean, 2016b). The Nigerian government has launched its own initiatives to find the girls and halt Boko Haram’s aggressive acts. Elected to the Nigerian presidency in 2015, Muhammadu Buhari guaranteed that his administration would overcome Boko Haram within a year. The Nigerian government has launched massive offensives such as airstrikes and has halted Boko Haram’s occupation of land, although the group’s activities have not subsided. In August 2016, footage released by the organization displays the girls with what looks like machete wounds, blaming the Buhari administration’s “airstrikes”. The video also showed an adherent of Boko Haram claiming the girls would only be released as a concession for detained group members (Maclean, 2016a). Currently, no leads on the Chibok girls have been discovered and 217 girls are still under the control of this militant, extremist group.
History
Boko Haram’s rejection of the Western World’s postcolonial values is what inspired the abduction of the 276 Chibok girls (Duthiers, Karimi, Botelho, 2016). Women’s education is seen as a symbol of lingering colonial influence as Boko Haram advocates for a version of Islam that rejects any act associated with Western culture (Cothia, 2015). The group’s deep seated anti-Western sentiment has its roots in a long period of colonial subjugation. Nigeria is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims. British colonialists created the Nigerian borders with little consideration for the different ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups within those perimeters, thus creating many of the divisions and conflict we witness today (Fisher, 2012). Power structures established by British colonizers often led to the oppression and marginalization of certain social groups. Britain appointed local rulers that reflected British values to govern parts of Nigeria, a system of “indirect rule”. Due to anti-Islamic sentiment within the British government, only locals that upheld Western ideals were chosen to govern and were given political power over locals less accepting of British influence. This colonial system engendered anti-Western sentiment that still exists today. Boko Haram has taken advantage of the frustrations of marginalized Muslims that want to rid of the Western influence in their country, using this sentiment as a core aspect of its recruitment strategies (Seachy, 2016).
Boko Haram has used this Muslim discontent to gain political consolidation within Nigeria. The group was founded by Mohammad Yusuf in 2002. Its ideology is derived from Wahabbism and the group’s current focus is the imposition of a national Islamic state throughout the country, even on the individuals of the Christian South ( Ford, 2014). This form of Islam has created leeway for radical groups such as Boko Haram to distort the teachings of the faith. The group had not turned violent until 2009 in the midst of the Nigerian revolts, when 17 Boko Haram members were killed by the Nigerian government and Yusuf ordered his followers to launch violent campaigns against its opponents (Smith, 2014). Yusuf was detained and murdered by the Nigerian government, making way for a new, more militant leader, Abubakar Shekau (Ford, 2014).
International Implications
Due to unsuccessful attempts to dismantle the organization, the group has been able to fortify over the last decade which has become increasingly more dangerous in our constantly interconnecting world. Because of the technological age and easier access to communicate abroad, borders become gradually more irrelevant and the crossover of ideas, ideologies, and behaviors can be transferred by the click of a button (Yan, 2014). The world has witnessed the use of various technological platforms to bolster a multitude of similar terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and ISIS. Through these means, Islamist groups can more easily associate and ally with each other, enabling them with the opportunity to support each group’s extreme objectives and radical religious agendas.
It is vital for us, as a global community, to note that Boko Haram is a group that embodies the rejection of human rights, women’s rights, and personal freedoms. It is also critical for us to realize that this extent of hatred and violence is a result of systemic and historical factors, such as European colonialism, that most terrorist groups are generated from. As a world filled with a myriad of international coalitions dedicated to human rights and counterterrorism, not only the kidnapping of the Chibok girls, but other oppressive actions committed by Boko Haram, concerns us all.
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Well done! I found your post to be organized well and really informative, especially since I did not know too much about Boko Haram before. Nice use of pictures and hyperlinks. My only suggestion would be to make it single-spaced.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the super informative post! I enjoyed reading about a terrorist group that I was less familiar with, and I'm excited to see what you guys have planned for future posts!
ReplyDeleteInformative post, your group included a lot of great and current information! For future posts I think it might be helpful to provide a little more background information prior to directly talking about the subject :)
ReplyDeleteReally great job! I especially loved the part under Boko Haram's history where your group describes the ideology behind their actions. I don't normally hear of branches of Islam other than Sunni or Shi'a, so it was interesting learning about Wahabbism through the link, and how it's affected the overall perception of the faith.
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