Daniel Lee

Lucarelli

Honors World History

10 May 2017

Today

Today the world is at its highest peak with the fight against terrorism. In recent years,

terrorists have attacked big tourist countries including France, Germany, Italy, and our very own

the United States of America. According to an article written in 2012 on World Net Daily they

say that ever since the 9/11 attacks about 20,000 terrorist attacks have been committed.

Terrorism is a major issue in todays society and its only getting worse. Constant talk of a

potential terrorist attack happening, and being committed by big terrorist groups like Isis, the

Taliban, and Al- Qaeda often scares us, but how about other terrorist groups like Boko Haram.

Just because theyre not a big name group, or hasnt threatened the US doesnt mean that people

should overlook them. Boko Haram had a very slow and challenging uprise that rarely took place

outside of the continent of Africa, so most of the world does not know of them. However, today

Boko Haram has been making headlines all across the world. On May 6th, 2017 the Nigerian

government confirmed that 82 out of about 276 school girls that were kidnapped from a Nigerian

town called Chibok were brought back home safely in return of 6 Boko Haram militants. This

comes after a three year campaign of #bringbackourgirls that not only spread awareness and

brought people to support the campaign, but also brought Boko Haram into the light as a real
threat. Back in April 14, 2014 these Chibok school girls were captured during final exam testing

at their school when Boko Haram suddenly arrived at the school. Since it was a government

school that they were testing at at least 15 soldiers guarded the area, and these soldiers would

hold off Boko Haram for about an hour until they were forced to flee, and the girls were taken

away. What many people dont know is the motive behind taking the girls away. Boko Haram

kidnapped these school girls, because they are a radical Islamic group that believes that Western

Education is forbidden (the meaning of the name Boko Haram). Furthermore, Boko Harams

official arabic name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means

"People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad", so because of this

they follow their Sharia Law which tells them that women should not be going out and educating

themselves trying to pursue a career, but should remain at home looking after their children and

husbands. This was a major reason why Boko Haram decided to kidnap these young schoolgirls,

however many of these girls escaped and now 82 has been handed over leaving only a handful of

school girls still being kept captive under Boko Haram. This isnt the first the time that Boko

Haram returned the girls. Back in October of 2016 around 20 of the Chibok schoolgirls were

released in a deal made by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Boko Haram is

expected to return more of the remaining girls, because of reports that say that there are more

important Boko Haram militants still in custody. In conclusion, Boko Haram has come up very

silently and should now be considered a serious threat, and should not be overlooked by

anybody. Obviously today in the year 2017 the presence of Boko Haram has gotten much bigger,

and more importantly much more dangerous.