generalspeaking

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

The Leering Jihadist

"It's been two weeks since the Nigerian government announced a truce with Boko Haram, giving a glimmer of hope to the families of the missing Chibok schoolgirls.
"Nigeria has insisted an agreement was reached with the insurgents about freedom for the girls. But in a new video, Shekau ruled this out, denying talk of a prisoner exchange for the release of the teens.
"Laughing, Shekau said the issue of the girls he'd earlier threatened to sell off as slaves was long forgotten.
"He says they've become Muslims and are now married to Boko Haram fighters. The news is a bitter blow for the families who were clinging to the possibility of some progress, though most Nigerians were deeply skeptical about the government's announcement." Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Nigeria, for National Public Radio

"If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you ... to die from grief.

"Don't you know the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls have converted to Islam? They have now memorized two chapters of the Quran."
"We married them off. They are in their marital homes."
"Don't you know we are still holding your German hostage [who is] always crying. If we want, we will hack him or slaughter him or shoot him."
Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram, Nigeria

$Boko Haram: Nigeria\'s crisis$

Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram, Jeering, Malicious Jester

With Goodluck Jonathan at the helm in Nigeria, it certainly appears that Nigerians' good luck has run out. There is obviously no concern about the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls, most of them Christian, forced to convert to Islam, and to submit not only to Allah but to rape and forced 'marriages'. It was obvious that the Boko Haram leader took great delight with malice aforethought in thoughtfully assuring the families of the girls that their daughters were now in good hands.

People call for the Nigerian government to rescue girls taken from a secondary school in Chibok region, during a protest earlier this month. Boko Haram, the group that took the girls, says they have been "married off."

As for the ceasefire that the Nigerian administration announced a month earlier with the added conviction that the girls were soon to be released, that was followed closely by the abduction of another 30 women and girls, and then another, and then another. All the while the government was mute on their fate, and the military seemed unprepared to do anything remotely to be confused with security and defence.

After all, there was a ceasefire in effect, an agreement and it wouldn't do to upset that applecart. Except that Boko Haram showed no hesitation in scorching the very notion that it had any intention of performing any acts of submission to governmental authority that might appear agreeable to the regime since that doesn't quite accord with their mission. So the destruction of entire villages, mass killing, abductions and rape will continue.

One imagines the only thing that would truly upset Goodluck Jonathan would be a challenge to the proceeds of Nigeria's oil revenues. But doubtless Abubakar Shekau, with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham in mind, with their income of $1-million on a nicely regular basis would appeal to Boko Haram's coffers as well, so Nigeria, while not tasking its military to the support of the civilian population vulnerable to raids by Boko Haram, will certainly defend its oil fields.

The government claims to be stepping up its military campaign. The defence ministry insists its airstrikes and ground operations have successfully repelled attacks against civilians in two states in northwestern Nigeria known sa strongholds and frequent targets for the terrorist group that aspires to create its own Sharia-led caliphate. The latest video released by Boko Haram is being "studied" by officials, even as it insists the talks aimed at the release of the schoolgirls continue.

It is the majority Muslim north and not the mostly Christian south that may feel secured from the depredations of Boko Haram. The terrorist group seems to scorn, and likely with good reason, the military onslaught purportedly ongoing against it by the government forces. Their intensified attacks bespeak a contempt for both the government and the military; they have been able to act at will as they will, untouchable by authority and the Nigerian military.

In the process of its conquest of the territory it increasingly claims as its own it has bombed schools, churches and mosques. It has kidnapped women and children. And it has murdered villagers when it rampages through their areas. And it has also managed to assassinate politicians and religious leaders with impunity in its campaign for the establishment of its caliphate.