The Nigerian schoolgirl kidnappings as Christian persecution

The public is rightly horrified by the kidnapping of some 276 Nigerian high school girls by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which has announced its plans to sell them as sex slaves.  Missing from many of the news stories is that most of the girls are Christians (the majority of whom are members of the Christian Brethren church) and that the attacks are in the context of Boko Haram’s anti-Christian crusade. 

From Boko Haram Threatens To Sell 165 Kidnapped Christian Girls to… | Gleanings | ChristianityToday.com.

The kidnappings occurred April 14, when the girls were taken from the predominantly Christian town of Chibok in the predominantly Muslim state of Borno. An estimated 50 of the teenage girls have since escaped. Now, media reports indicate that Boko Haram, which has killed an estimated 1,500 people so far this year, has taken the girls into the neighboring countries of Chad and Cameroon where they risk forced marriages and human trafficking.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) recently released the names of 165 Christian girls and 15 Muslim girls it says were kidnapped from Chibok. Many are affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. Meanwhile, the overall number of abducted girls has risen past 275, according to The New York Times, because reports of girls taken from other schools were slower to surface.

From Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, a second video released after his announcement of the girls’ kidnappings:

«This is a war against Christians and democracy and their constitution; we have not started, we will be in Abuja, and in every state in Nigeria.

«This war is against Christians, I mean Christians, generally the infidels. Allah says we should finish them when we get them.

«I have no time with your trillion. I am working for Allah and will die for it. No one can stop me. You killed Mohammed Yusuf. Are you not saying he is even better than Shekau?

«Even if you kill me, other fighters will rise better than me; I am nothing and worthless before Allah who I am working for. You are sitting with Christians and saying we are one, saying there is no difference. We are not one with infidels.

«We are friends with Afghanistan, Mali, Yemen and Pakistan, and we are going to wipe out the Christians

«Are Christians the people we should play with? It is either you are with us or you are with them, and when we see you, we will harvest your neck with knife.