U.S. Fails to Designate Nigerian Jihadists as Foreign Terror Group
July 9, 2013
BY RYAN MAURO AND MATT CARMEL
By not designating Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, the U.S. is choosing appeasement over moral clarity.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Boko Haram group in Nigeria is, by any definition, a foreign terrorist organization. The Obama Administration is refusing to designate it as such, arguing that it is not a direct threat to the U.S. In other words, it is choosing appeasement over moral clarity.
Boko Haram is roughly translated to mean that Western education is sacrilegious. The Islamist group is openly committed to “war” against the Federal Republic of Nigeria in order to create a “pure” Islamic country governed by Sharia law. Members often cite the Koranic verse, “anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among transgressors.”