For a long time, Okoh said, “the United States did not come out to say anything about Boko Haram. They kept talking about economic problems, [saying] that Boko Haram is fighting because of economic problems. That is not true … The United States deliberately ignored the fundamental issues of religious ideology.” Indeed — and even worse: the mainstream media in the U.S. was filled for awhile with articles about how what Boko Haram did had nothing to do with Islam.
Wrong diagnoses lead to the application of remedies that won’t work, and the problem will persist.
“Boko Haram’s Islamic motives ‘ignored,’” by David Roach, Baptist Press, July 9, 2014:
ABUJA, Nigeria – The United States and other western nations have ignored the religious motivation of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram and must understand the theological dynamics in Nigeria in order to curb terrorism in the western African country, the archbishop of Nigeria’s Anglican Church told Baptist Press.
For a long time, “the United States did not come out to say anything about Boko Haram,” Nicholas Okoh, primate of the Church of Nigeria, said in an interview. “They kept talking about economic problems, [saying] that Boko Haram is fighting because of economic problems. That is not true … The United States deliberately ignored the fundamental issues of religious ideology.”
Based in northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram has killed an estimated 10,000 people since 2002 with an escalation in murders recently. In April the group received wide media coverage for kidnapping 273 schoolgirls, 219 of whom remain missing and may be enslaved as wives of Muslim men. Loosely translated, the phrase Boko Haram means “Western education is sinful.”
Nicholas Okoh, a leader in the worldwide conservative Anglican movement, urged the U.S. government to support the Nigerian government “strongly” in its fight against terrorism so that it can “combat Boko Haram to a standstill” and force peaceful negotiation.
Boko Haram’s two central beliefs are that western-style education should be abolished from Nigeria and that the nation should be governed by Sharia law, an Islamic system of government based on the Koran that imposes, among other things, harsh penalties on Muslims who convert to Christianity. According to one estimate, Nigeria is 50 percent Muslim and 48 percent Christian.
The U.S. State Department’s 2013 announcement to the media that it had designated Boko Haram as a terrorist organization said only that it is “a Nigeria-based militant group with links to al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb.” The announcement contained no further mention of Islam or Sharia but did reference “the legitimate concerns of the people of northern Nigeria.”
Okoh, a leader in the worldwide conservative Anglican movement, acknowledged northern Nigeria faces economic problems and injustice, but he said such problems are not isolated to one region of the country. In addition, Boko Haram has never expressed economic motivations or claimed to be fighting for justice in northern Nigeria, he said.
“Some of the economic facilities, employment opportunities are visible in the northeast,” Okoh said. “Boko Haram has destroyed all of them. So if they were actually interested in economic progress, they would not go around destroying what offered some economic succor to our people.”
Okoh urged the U.S. government to support the Nigerian government “strongly” in its fight against terrorism so that it can “combat Boko Haram to a standstill” and force peaceful negotiation. He admitted though that negotiation cannot occur if Boko Haram continues to demand only universal Sharia law and an end to western-style education.
Among the indications that negotiation may be impossible are Boko Haram’s statement that it will not talk to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan unless he converts to Islam and the group’s statement that the government has no authority to offer it amnesty, Okoh said. Boko Haram regards itself as the reigning power with authority to offer the government amnesty, he added.
Okoh also said neighboring countries must stop funding Boko Haram.
Currently the Nigerian government is using “moderated force” without conducting a full scale military operation against the terrorist group, Okoh said. The goal, he noted, is to determine Boko Haram’s agenda more fully and draw them into discussions.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Christians have prayed, fasted and held meetings with their Muslim neighbors. But neither Christians nor moderate Muslims have been able to curtail Boko Haram violence, Okoh said.
“God created every human being equal and free,” he said. “Boko Haram tries to deny people freedom – freedom of worship and freedom of the expression of their religion. This is not what God asks us to do. Religion is a gift of God, and people should be allowed to express it. Therefore, forceful abduction of people or forceful conversion is outside God’s will … God does not force us to follow Him. He only makes us willing to follow Him.”
No one should think Boko Haram is serving God, Okoh said, especially in light of its kidnapping of children.
“Children are precious in the sight of God,” he said. “And to go to a school and abduct children and take them into the bush and to divert the course of their destiny is something we think is against God.”
Okoh asked Christians in America and other western nations to understand Nigeria’s plight and call on their governments to help.
“Christians in the West first of all need to encourage western governments to see Boko Haram as a very deadly terrorist organization…,” Okoh said. “And they also need to support the government of Nigeria in every way possible so that the government will be able to combat Boko Haram.”
Michael Copeland says
“For peace to reign in the land, all Christians must convert to Islam”.
It is very straightforward and there is no option.
http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/index.php/home/root/news-libertygb/6442-for-peace
Dick Bulova says
Should we Christians become Shi’a or Sunni?
medina says
Perhaps Okoh missed the First Lazy’s hashtag.
boakai ngombu says
“… They kept talking about economic problems, [saying] that Boko Haram is fighting because of economic problems. That is not true … The United States deliberately ignored the fundamental issues of religious ideology.”
and, sadly, the US government will continue to ignore the fundamental issues of religious ideology under the present POTUS (and his “brother,” Malik, who works to destroy the visible church and Christian and public schools)
it’s easier to talk about funding development and encouraging selfsustaining businesses than it is to speak about Judeo-Christian concepts derived from the Bible, when so many slaves to the Allah god of Islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) work in the administration and advise those of State… because of PC moral equivalence and tolerance… and understand not such concepts as: love, forgiveness, reconciliation, honesty, freedom of conscience.
Muhammadans (slaves to SHARIA) have not understanding that the Unique God does not force people to follow His Christ, but does make humans willing to follow Him. Those who emulate Muhammad (lately contrived; full of lusts) are taught only to despoil, fight, die.
Shane says
Yes, too many in the West ignore the fact that most terrorists and jihadist are devout Muslims who are following Muhammad’s example by waging war on infidels. I blame George Bush and some Republicans and almost all Democrats for ignoring this fact.
zulu says
Captors release photo of P.O.W Bowe Bergdahl smiling alongside Taliban commander as they claim he wasn’t tortured during five-year detention but ‘treated with kindness’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2686833/Photo-Bowe-Bergdahl-smiling-posing-Taliban-commander-captivity-gets-posted-Twitter.html#ixzz374xyKekw
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PRCS says
My dad passed away, in a very small town in north eastern Montana in March.
I went there two weeks ago for the service and to bury his ashes.
The Catholic priest, in that tiny little prairie town, is from Nigeria.
I wish I had had the time to ask him a few questions about Boko Haram and the problem of Islam in Nigeria.
I’m sure he’d have been a wealth of information.
mortimer says
Hallelujah! The leader of Nigeria’s 13 million Anglicans (one of the fastest-growing churches in Africa) HAS FINALLY SPOKEN out loud and clear.
He follows the Roman Catholic cardinal Nigerian cardinal/prelate John Onaiyekan who this year criticized the role of sharia, and said Muslim leaders must ‘rein in their mad dogs’.
Other Christian leaders need to put more pressure on the central government to act by cleaning out the Islamists in the national police force and army.
Mary_Gonzales says
Nigeria, more than a half are Christians. I think its time for you to unite and create a fighter group. No need to wait for the west. There is no more west. So, do not make any hope to them. They won’t come in time. Nigerian must not to be a coward. Don’t let them just kidnap or behead your friend, your family, your neighbor, and you are still keep silent and begging to the west. If your government can’t do it, so do it yourself. Fight them back. An Eye for an eye, A head for a head. Wake up Nigerian !
PRCS says
But,
Who has the guns?
If the Christians who have been so terribly persecuted by Nigerian Muslims had guns, wouldn’t they have used them to prevent all of those massacres already?
Richie says
Leftists tend to despise Jews and Christians. The only care about Muslims. Dont expect the liberal media to spend 5 seconds covering the genocide of Christians
Judi says
It would take strategists like Israel to wipe them out completely.
bobm says
Mr . OKOH….are you not railing even against the useless idiot chrislam surge in your own “church?.. that dances merrily along with Rome and other “denominations ” on the road to the reign of antichrist?
Clare says
Well, Western governments and Christians everywhere should read (and should have been reading) Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs. Perhaps there is still yet time for Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller to be household names. In a sane West, they would be household names by now.
Michael Carpenter says
As long as the politically correct fad (I hope)continues, governments will not correctly address the Islamic uprising in the world, let alone their own countries. More people of influence like the archbishop need to speak out to open the ears and maybe the minds of government leaders to the truth about the Islamic invasion of societies. Governments need to understand that Islam is a governmental religion that is not going away and will continue to strive to take over countries. This has been going on for hundreds of years and will continue until Islam is successful or the religion is defeated or dismantled internally.
David says
What a contrast between people such as this Archbishop and naive fools such as the former Archibishop of Cantebury Rowan Williams. This world needs more Nicholas Okohes.