This quotable quote, more than anything
else, captures my position on the Boko
Haram maniacs. It is taken from Season 3
of the American political thriller,
Homeland. Nicholas Brody, a retired US
Marine sergeant ─ who had turned
against his country, converted to Islam
and become a terrorist while fighting in
Iraq ─ was on the run. He was a suspect in
the bombing of CIA headquarters. A
bounty of $25 million was placed on his
head. On self-exile in Venezuela, he
escaped from his overbearing
“protectors”, moved into a mosque and
introduced himself as a Muslim to the
Imam, who gladly received and housed
him.
But not long after that, the Imam discovered
Brody was a fugitive ─ declared wanted in
America for terrorist activities. The Imam
immediately confronted Brody, telling him to
leave his mosque and shouting: “You are
NOT a Muslim. You ARE a terrorist!”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the missing
jigsaw in our attitude to Boko Haram in
Nigeria. We continue to view these thugs
through Christian and Muslim lenses rather
than see them for what they truly are:
bloody-sucking terrorists from the pit of hell.
No genuine Muslim should be proud of the
activities of these demons. No genuine
Christian should rejoice at the unending
slaughter of the innocent. No true Nigerian
should be happy that a section of this
country has been turned to killing fields by
deranged fanatics, who murder children and
women with brainless fervour, who haul
bombs into crowded churches and mosques.
For too long, we have failed to isolate these
retarded adults and treat them as a different
bunch of gangsters who are a threat to all of
us ─ Muslims, Christians, Northerners,
Southerners, PDP, APC, Jonathan, Buhari, etc
etc. When this whole madness began to
unfold on a large scale, we chose to treat it
as a religious or political problem. To many
Muslims, it was a problem for Christians ─
until Boko Haram went past churches and
started attacking emirs and mosques. To
many Christians, it is “these Muslims who
hate us” ─ but we can now see that even
“these Muslims” hate fellow Muslims. The
attack on the Central Mosque in Kano last
Friday is as barbaric as the one on St.
Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, on
Christmas day in 2011.
To many Southerners, terrorism is a
problem for Northerners. “Let them keep
bombing themselves” is their terrible
attitude. But they forget that the victims in
Abuja, Nyanyan, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Kano
and elsewhere are full-blooded Nigerians
from different tongues. “Let us divide
Nigeria” is a chart-buster among some
Southerners ─ as if having blood-drinking
terrorists next door is going to be a tea
party. Ask Kenya about the al-Shabab
menace in neighbouring Somalia. Ask
Turkey about the hazard of ISIS in Iraq. Ask
Mali about the fall-outs from the fall of
Muammar Ghaddafi in Libya. It is pure
ignorance to think that leaving innocent
Northerners at the mercy of these lunatics is
a great idea ─ when they will eventually share
border with you if your dream of breaking up
Nigeria comes true.
The politicisation of Boko Haram is
absolutely odious and horrendous. On the
one hand, the All Progressives Congress
(APC) sees it as a publicity tool to win votes
by highlighting how clueless the PDP-led
government is. A party chieftain once said
APC would end Boko Haram within three
months if voted into power. That easy? On
the other hand, the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) has been trying to demonise APC
as the sponsors of Boko Haram ─ all because
of 2015. And I keep saying: if PDP is sure APC
is behind terrorism, is it not the job of
government to arrest and prosecute the
suspects? Does the PDP government have a
game plan to defeat terror? Is the game plan
working? That should be their preoccupation
rather than demarketing APC.
For too long, we have had a wrong attitude
towards Boko Haram. We underestimated
the problem. We played politics with it. We
have been pointing fingers back and forth.
We have been propounding all sorts of
senseless theories. The only theory that I
understand, and I will continue to say this, is
that Boko Haram is a committee of vampires.
They display their insanity by hiding behind
religion, but they easily lose the case when
even Muslims become their prey. What point
are they making by killing worshippers at a
Jummat service? What God do they believe in
that takes pleasure even in the death of
Muslims like them? The only sensible
conclusion is that these hooligans are not
Muslims. They are terrorists.
What exactly do these guys want? I have
been monitoring and analysing Boko
Haram’s pronouncements since the
emergence of Abubakar Shekau as their
leader in 2009. He has never suggested
ceasefire or complained about poverty or
lack of infrastructure. He has been incredibly
consistence with his mission statement: to
establish an Islamic caliphate and get rid of
the infidels. Infidels, in this case, are not just
Christians ─ who, in any case, are their
natural targets ─ but Muslims who do not
share their bestial brain. From the very
beginning, he said he had a divine mandate
to kill human beings “like chickens”. He said
the Nigerian system is anti-Islam and he had
a divine call to cleanse the land. He has said
this again and again and again.
If we are wise enough, it should be clear to
all by now that we are not dealing with a
religious problem, even if it has a religious
content. We are not dealing with a political
problem, even though they have a political
message. We are not dealing with a regional
problem, even if the North-East happens to
be their base. We are dealing with a security
problem. A national security problem. A
problem that spares no one. We saw this
problem start in the backyard of Maiduguri.
It became a Borno problem. It became a
regional problem. They started with swords
and daggers. Now they are using bombs.
They started with hit-and-run. Now they are
in command of towns and villages.
If we are to learn from the pattern of
insurgency around the world, what we are
seeing is just an introduction. Nobody knows
the next frontier. Nobody knows their next
strategy. And nobody is safe. Nowhere is
safe. That is why it hurts me to my bones
when we play politics with this insurgency. It
hurts me to my soul that we cannot see
beyond our nose. It hurts me deep when we
introduce 2015 and regionalism and bigotry
into this unambiguous national security
tragedy. What we have in our hands is,
evidently, a copycat of Al-Qaeda, Taliban,
ISIS, name them ─ funded, equipped and
motivated by forces who have a global terror
agenda, headlined by Osama bin Laden in
the last decade.
Fellow Nigerians, I am convinced beyond
reasonable ─ and unreasonable ─ doubt that
this Boko Haram lunacy can only be tackled
when we take away the religious and political
veil from our face. We need the buy-in of
every Nigerian to confront this insanity. We
need the political class across the divides.
We need Nigerians of all religious
persuasions. We need a national consensus
to cast out these devils. They are not
Muslims. They are terrorists.
By Simon Kolawole

Source: www.thecable.ng/youre-not-muslim-youre-terrorist

Yes only when the moslems take the veil off their faces and accept the bitter truth that their religion created and continue to create this menace.
The writer should know that its nobody's intention to create a wedge between good moslems and adherents of other religions by saying it as it is. Truth they say is bitter. There's no point being diplomatic here. It's fear that'll drive such diplomacy except for people in leadership positions whose offices demand such pretences.
Again this writer shouldn't pretend as though what Nigeria is facing is different from what's going on elsewhere.
Boko haram and other such groups are founded on Islamic ideologies rooted in the Koran. That's the problem - those satanic verses that spur them to their savagery acts.

The world has enough doses of lunatics. But Islam is right now the worst of all.

@Op Guy U make sense bt wot's d solution! No b 2 de highlight our problem bt wot wil d common man do na?

Our leaders should act rather making politics out of everything that is happening. Everyday people are killed, our military strength is not to be proud of, over 100 of girls are still missing. May God guide our leaders right. May the soul of those killed rest in peace.

boko pray 5 times daily as one of the pillars of islam.

So.....they are muslims. Boko read the quran, allah is their god. Boko are muslims full stop.

we Muslim will continue to pray in the masjid.Death is inevitable but those that did this insha Allah would be dealt with

Thumbs up op, only if we can see beyond 2015 and demand the politicians protect lives and properties first