ODVV Statement in Condemnation of the Inhuman Acts of the Boko Haram Terror Group

The recent attacks by the militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria have both violated the right to education and gender equality of Nigerian schoolgirls, and also angered the Islamic world because of the terrorist group's abuse of the Sharia of Islam to reach its own inhuman and violent objectives.
Since its launch in 2002 this terror group has committed countless numbers of acts of terrorism, and the latest which has angered the international community was the 14 April attack on a girls boarding school in north east of the country where over 200 schoolgirls were abducted n the middle of the night, whose fates and whereabouts are still unknown.
All these terror attacks by the Islamist group have been on the excuse of the fight against western education and the application of Shaira laws, and these violent and extremist actions have raised concerns and angered the world particularly the Islamic world. Sharia stresses on the importance of education and science, and the claims of this extremist group to the implementation of Islamic religious commands through the violation of girls right to education as Islamic and Sharia based. The religion of Islam in its teachings has always condoned peace in the world and stress on the respect to human dignity and equality between men and women.
The demands of this group that girls must not go to school and get married is both the violation of the right to education and gender inequality and violence against women and girls of the country. The terror group has said that the abducted girls will be sold as slaves or be forced to marry.
These crimes and cases of violation of human rights of Nigerian girls takes place while international organizations such as the UN have not been able to do anything for the release of these girls.
While expressing sympathy to the families of the abduced girls, the ODVV strongly condemns this inhuman and un-Islamic, calls for speedy action by the UN for the release of these girls and their return to their families.
The ODVV also resolutely rejects the claims of this terror group to being Islamic and condemns their un-Islamic and inhuman actions.