A Muslim’s Response to Kidnapping of Nigerian Girls by Boko Haram

At present world the greatest threat that the Muslim world faces is from the Muslims who have gown down the path of ignorance and tyranny and are bringing troubles and atrocity to Muslims and deteriorating the image of Islam as well. The actions of such people have brought greater harm and damage to Islam then the non-believers who resent Islam.

One of the recent examples pertaining to this group of so called ‘Islamic extremists’ is the Boko Haram militia in Nigeria who have recently kidnapped secondary school girls from Nigeria. The recent action of theirs and their long history of such actions have brought a bad name to Islam and people all over the world considering them as misguided people think of them as followers of Islam. In this post today, The QuranTutor.com Academy discusses the actions of Boko Haram from the perspective of Islam and the biased branding of Western media.

Boko Haram From An Islamic Perspective:

If the true teachings of Islam be viewed and applied to the actions and ideology of Boko Haram, then one ultimately leads to the conclusion that their actions or philosophy of operations has nothing to do with Islam; rather their actions are extremely against the preaching of Islam.

What Boko Haram apparently claims is that they are against the Western pagans and would not allow their system of politics or education to be adopted in their country. Thus, whoever tries to learn something, they go against is and similar is what they do with the people in favor of democracy. Some of the major ayahs from Quran that detest the actions and attitude of Boko Haram are as follows:

Allah says in Quran:

“Invoke your Lord with humility and in secret. He likes not the aggressors. And do not do mischief on the earth, after it has been set in order, And invoke Him with fear and hope; Surely, Allah’s mercy is (ever) near unto the good-doers.” (7:55-56)

From this ayah of Quran it is extremely evident that Islam is against terrorism and any such actions which Boko Haram committed in earlier days and which it continues to do. From this ayah, it is clear that Allah Almighty does not like aggressors, therefore, the deeds of aggression committed by Boko Haram are not Islamic, rather they are in total contrast to what Islam propagates.

At another place in Quran, Allah Almighty says:

“….. and seek not corruption in the earth; lo! Allah loveth not corrupters.” (28:77)

A sensible person after reading this ayah would ask that how can the actions of Boko Haram be called Islamic after reading this ayah. The kidnapping of the girls is nothing more than spreading corruption and chaos in the world, therefore, there is no way the actions of Boko Haram can be regarded as    Islamic and the preaching of Islam to be blamed for it.

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” (5:8)

The killing of innocents, the bomb blasts, the harassing and the recent kidnappings all that are associated with Boko Haram are totally against the teachings of Islam. None of their actions comes under the umbrella of fair dealing, justice or compassion, therefore, whatever they do is can be for some ulterior motive, and it has nothing to do with Islam.

Besides the ignorance of Muslims fighting for the so called cause of Allah, it is the Western media as well that is trying to bash the image of Islam as well. The portrayal they give to Islam is biased and it is always negative.

The question to ask is that if the West is so fond of and inclined towards objective research, then why does it simply blame Islam for all the trouble that the misguided Muslims are producing without comparing it with true preaching of Islam?

All what Western media does is that it goes on blaming Islam for whatever the Muslims are doing all over the world. Instead of showing Muslims as straight forward terrorists, if West were to show the true preaching of Islam, then the people of world in general and Muslims in particular would better understand what the true message of Islam is and how people because of their ignorance and the brainwashing of conservatives go deep in ignorance instead of spreading the message of peace of Islam.

The bottom line is: To a sensible Muslim who has a little knowledge about Islam and realizes that Islam and humanity are the same will never ever back the actions of Boko Haram, rather he or she will detest such actions and consider them as inhumane and non- Islamic. Thus, such a person will blame the people who do it and would never regard it as an action encouraged by Islam or the spirit of Islam governing it.