Boko Haram Islamist Jihadists Kill Eight more Christians in their War Against Christianity in Nigeria

These Islamic terrorists claim that when they die during their evil acts, they are martyrs. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are simply dead terrorists. They have either taken their own lives - an intrinsically evil act - or died in the commission of another intrinsically evil act, taking the lives of the innocent. Make no mistake, there is no paradise awaiting such evil!

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ABUJA, Nigeria (Catholic Online) - On the weekend of September 18, 2016, Boko Haram militants shot eight Christians who were traveling back from their Church services. Like the Islamic State (ISIS), these Islamic terrorists have proclaimed a Caliphate. And like the Islamic State they especially hate Jews and Christians.

While news reports multiplied in the aftermath of the evil actions of Islamic Muslim Extremists in Paris on the evening in slaughtering over 130 innocent people, the rising tide of Islamic extremism spread in Africa under the banner of this Islamic movement called Boko Haram. Yet, the world seems to pay very little attention.

On August 22, 2014, the FIDES Agency reported that 11,000 people fled the town of Gwoza, in the State of Borno in Northern Nigeria. They had to abandon their home or face the sword of Boko Haram. According to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian affairs, 650,000 fled the onslaught of these evil Islamists between August of 2014 and May, 2013.

Boko Haram captured Baga, a town in the Northeastern Nigerian State of Borno, along with the neighboring town of Doron, Baga.  Reports of the assault emerged on January 3, 2015 in social media sources - but not in the main stream press. Boko Haram proudly claimed they captured the towns on January 4th. On January 8th, the first main stream  media reports of the capture and carnage emerged.

Photos of bodies strewn throughout the street circulated. The dead, some with heads severed and others bearing the marks of the cruelty which they endured, were thrown everywhere like trash. Reports of the dead reached as high as 2,000 people.Through satellite images, Amnesty International confirmed that the attack on Baga and Doron Baga was the largest and deadliest assault by Boko Haram it has ever analyzed. Along with the thousands killed or burned alive by the terrorists, 620 homes were destroyed in Baga and 3,100 in Doron Baga.

When the terrorist attack in Paris occurred, the devastation in Nigeria fell out of most press coverage. That is why I am writing once again to call our attention to this evil organization called Boko Haram. Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language. These Islamic terrorists hate all things western and Christian. They are militant Jihadist Muslims who intend to forcibly establish an Islamic Caliphate and impose Shariah Law on everyone in Nigeria, just as the Islamic State is trying to do in lands formerly claimed by Iraq and Syria. 

They are also called  al-Sunnah wal Jamma - or Followers of the Prophet's Teachings. They refer to themselves officially as Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which means "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and Jihad".

Of course, we need to cover the spread of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the spread of Islamic terrorism in Europe and the United States.  However, we must ALSO report on the horrors being inflicted on the people of Africa. The evil of Islamic terrorism is not decreasing, it is increasing. The goal is a worldwide Caliphate and the violent imposition of Sharia law by the sword. 

And, though it is also directed against minority religious sects and some Muslims, it has a special disdain for Jews and Christians. The Islamic State and Boko Haram proudly affirm their hatred for Jews and Christians. Many of the victims are killed precisely because they are Jews or Christians.

If you want to read a source which "pulls no punches" in their reporting on all of this, read Jihad Watch. Though the publication - and its founder- have been pilloried over the last few years as sensationalist by some in the propaganda media of the West, its reporting has been amazingly accurate. The Director of Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer, is a genuine Catholic Christian man and a scholar of great integrity. He has demonstrated great courage.

Words of the early Christian Church leader Tertullian, written in the Second Century, still echo with a promise for this urgent hour: "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church."  The blood of true martyrs is flowing as Islamic terrorism establishes a new beachhead in Africa. The true martyrs are being slaughtered by these evil Islamic terrorists. For Catholics and other Christians, we cannot - we must not - fail to act to expose and oppose the spread of this evil.

Africa is one of the great centers of the genuine renewal of the Christian Church for the missionary work of the Third Millennium. Holy Christian men and women are shedding their blood for the ancient and ever new faith. Some of the strongest defenders of the faith are arising from Africa and, I believe that the Holy Spirit is raising up the African Church as a model of fidelity for the rest of the Christian world. We are in a new Christian missionary age. Part of this involves the overt persecution of Christians.

We need to be very clear about the evil designs of the Islamic terrorists.  I remember the cold war, even the drills where we hid under our desks. The rising spread of Islamic terrorism calls to mind the great need for a National resolve.  It makes the threat of militant Marxism look mild in comparison.

These Islamic terrorists claim that when they die during their evil acts, they are martyrs. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are simply dead terrorists. They have either taken their own lives - an intrinsically evil act - or died in the commission of another intrinsically evil act, taking the lives of the innocent. Make no mistake, there is no paradise awaiting such evil!

The word Martyr derives from a Greek word which means witness. The Christian faith proclaims that the shedding of one's blood in fidelity to Jesus Christ is the final witness to the Faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that:

"Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude" (CCC #2471 - 2473)

These Islamic terrorists have been brutalizing the people of northern Nigeria for many years. They boast and smile as they take responsibility for their evil and horrific behavior - without any remorse or regret.

I reported on the bombing outside of St Theresa's Catholic Church on Christmas Day, 2011. That evil act committed by Boko Haram, was followed by an ultimatum issued to Christians in Northern Nigeria to leave in three days or face further violence.

A spokesman for Boko Haram announced they were planning a "war on Christians". The spokesman said the group would "launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country. We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay."

The evil intent of this group finally grabbed the attention of the broader media in May of 2014 when they kidnapped 200 schoolgirls. The Christian Association of Nigeria released the names of many of the girls. The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, gave an interview  to Vatican Radio on May 6, 2014. Here is an excerpt:

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"We know that Boko Haram have no sense of humanity. We know that they are killing innocent people. But that they should be able to cart away almost 300 children in the Northeast of Nigeria without any trace of where these children are really baffles us".

The Christian Post confirmed what many news reports did not even note. The majority of the kidnapped girls are Christians. Later reports of these little girls "converting" to Islam are simply one more example of the evil of this organization, and the brand of Islam which they seek to spread by the sword.

Of course, the kidnapping of any child is an intolerable evil and heinous crime. The acknowledged intent to sell the girls into slavery shocked the conscience of the world. However, the explicitly anti-Christian nature of the kidnapping received very little press notice. 

A May 6, 2014 article entitled Most of Boko Haram Kidnapped Schoolgirls Are Christians, Nigerian Evangelist Says noted: "With reports that the girls are being sold as brides to the Islamic militants for $12.00 each, the parents and Christian groups have called on the Nigerian military and the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to do all they can to find the girls.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," Shekau, said in the video translated by CNN. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women."

These reports confirmed other reports going back many years. This Islamic terrorist sect has been explicitly terrorizing the Christians of Nigeria. They actually claim that their "god" commands them to rape and engage in human trafficking! that is most assuredly NOT the true God.

I once again call attention to the explicitly anti-Christian acts of terror committed by both Boko Haram and the Islamic State for a reason. Few in the main stream media are doing so! The truth must be told.  Of course, Boko Haram also hates others, including some fellow Muslims. But, they particularly hate Jews and Christians - and we must be clear about this!

Just as some in the main stream media failed to report that they are Islamic terrorists, they also failed to point out their special hatred of Jews and Christians. I will not succumb to this newest example of political correctness.  In May of 2014, Abubakar Shekau, then the leader of Boko Haram, released a video. He was reportedly killed in August of 2016 by the Nigerian army.

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However, I will end with some of this man's own words to make the intention of this evil organization clear:

"To the people of the world...it is either you are with us Mujahedeen or you are with the Christians. We know what is happening in this world, it is a Jihad war against Christians and Christianity. It is a war against western education, democracy and constitution. This is what I know in Quran. This is a war against Christians and democracy and their constitution, Allah says we should finish them when we get them."

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Deacon Keith A. Fournier is the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online and the founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. Ordained to the ministry as a Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia twenty years ago, he and his wife Laurine have been married for forty years. They have five grown children and seven grandchildren. He is also a constitutional lawyer and public policy advocate who served as the first and founding Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice in the nineteen nineties. He has long been active at the intersection of faith and culture and currently serves as Special Counsel to Liberty Counsel.

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