Anyone who owns a T.V. or computer is familiar by now with the kidnapping of over two hundred young girls that occurred in Nigeria in April of this year. This evil act was carried out by an Islamist group known as Boko Haram. Not only did these savages kidnap the innocent girls while they were studying at school in the war-torn country, they systematically forced many of them to convert to Islam and “married” them. In previous kidnappings, Boko Haram jihadis skipped the marriage part completely and forced some of the girls to become sex slaves.1 Videos of the parents of the missing girls begging for their daughters’ lives are absolutely heart wrenching. They have to live knowing that their child is being raped and beaten by some Islamist savage, and there’s nothing that they can do about it. Anyone who’s not brainwashed or a psychopath will object to this inhumanity. What the media hasn’t shed light on, however, is that incidents like this have been very common throughout Islamic history especially during the time of Muhammad, the founder of the religion.

Many Muslim scholars were quick to cover their behinds and issued statements condemning the incident. It would have been great if they had stopped there. Instead, they went on to claim that Boko Haram is misinterpreting Islam, and that their actions are in direct conflict with Muhammad’s teachings. In fact, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia (the highest religious authority in the country), Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh said:

“These groups are not on the right path because Islam is against kidnapping, killing and aggression…Marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.”2

I would usually expect an apologetic answer like this from a “moderate” or reformist Muslim scholar living in the West. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that even the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia found this incident absolutely disgusting. Even he could not picture those little girls being violated and not feel heart-broken. Any half-decent human being would cringe after hearing about the sadistic actions of Boko Haram against these innocent children. But I urge the Sheikh to be honest about his statement. Is Boko Haram really going against Islam, Sheikh? Let’s be real. What did Muhammad have to say about this topic? As always, I am only quoting ‘authentic’ Hadith collections here that have been unanimously accepted by Islamic scholars throughout history. Here is what Muhammad said: