In April 2014, the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram abducted more than 200 Nigerian girls from a boarding school in the northeastern state of Borno. Boko Haram can be translated as “western education is forbidden;” its opposition to western education is only part of its larger goal, however, which is to create in Nigeria an Islamic state, ruled by the Koran’s Shari’a law. In 2002 Mohammed Yusuf established the group that would become known as Boko Haram in the state of Borno, under the name “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad.” Yusuf called for withdrawal from what he perceived as a corrupted society, and attracted many youth in this impoverished region through outreach programs like job training and direct aid.

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