Je suis Contre Boko Haram.

The recent shooting at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris have shaken up the world, and enraged everyone valuing the freedom of speech. The attackers meant to destroy the organization because of its cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. They ended up killing and simultaneously immortalizing 12 men. Meanwhile in Baga, Nigeria a terrorist group named Boko Haram has also carried out various attacks, allegedly spilling from 150 to 2000 lives and hardly anyone writes or comments on the latter of the two. For what reason do the events in Nigeria almost go unnoticed while everyone has shown their support for the victims of the Paris shootings on the internet, ranging from “Je suis Charlie” to re-distributing and posting their Muhammad cartoons?

We’ve heard so much about ISIS and Al Qaeda, but what is Boko Haram? The organization has been founded in 2002, and was initially focused on powerfully opposing Western education, hence the name. After 2009 they began operations in order to create an Islamic state, similar to the operations that ISIS (ISIL) is currently performing in Syria. To date around 3 million people are affected by Boko Harams local dictatorial behavior. If they are so influential, how come we hardly hear about them?

One could blame the world for not giving more attention to the events in Nigeria than the shootings of January 7th 2015 in Paris, France. If more people were killed in the attacks and hostage takings by Boko Haram than in Paris shouldn’t Baga deserve more attention of the global community? CNN has reported that it is not easy to determine the truth in Nigeria. The first piece of information seems to leak through social media, being a 140 character Tweet or so. And there have been cases where the internet and phone lines don’t work for months in a row, because of jihadist attacks on phone masts. The politicians and government officials whose job it is to tell the world the truth themselves often have no idea what really happened. All the witnesses are fleeing for their life. Senator Maine Maaji Lawan has said that at least 70 percent of the area he represents is in the hands of Boko Haram, including Borno, and Adamawa, two provinces in the north east of Nigeria.

In both cases, the Arabic ‘Allahu Akbar’ is a phrase often repeated during attacks and in the following newscasts. It leads to wonder how Islamic these attacks really are and how they make the media portray the entire religion of Islam and its possibly commonly goodhearted and kind followers. Anonymous (second semester business management) has said that she cannot wait until everyone around the world will start treating each other’s lives with respect and dignity. She’s tired of these lives being wasted for no other reason than to make a point. It should be able to accomplish this in a different way. Abdullah K. (first semester nursing) added: I can’t believe how generalizing the media has been about Islam. A practicing Muslim is a peaceful, hardworking man, and he respects his neighbors. These attacks don’t have anything to do with real religion. Dharpa C. (ex-student at GPC) relates back to the way Christians converted in the Middle Ages, often giving the option to either believe in Jesus or die. He thinks that the attacks and terroristic organizations are merely a repeat of the clash of beliefs that the world will always endure, as long as humans long for power and are unwilling to ‘agree to disagree’.