On Friday, Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped 22 more young girls. They will be held as sex slaves or sold to the highest bidder.

“Boko Haram” means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language. These Islamists terrorists hate all things western and Christian. They want to forcibly establish an Islamic Caliphate and impose Shariah Law on everyone.

They call themselves al-Sunnah wal Jamma: “Followers of the Prophet’s Teachings.” Their official name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which means “People committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and Jihad.”

This definition defines them. They are proud of it. They boast of their evil acts and have no conscience. Who is the main target of their jihad? Christians.

The Christian Targets

Remember three years ago, when Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria? Most of the girls are Christians. These girls can be sold as brides to the Islamist terrorists for $12.00.

The terrorists of Boko Haram haven’t stopped and they won’t stop. A spokesman said in 2011, “There will never be peace until our demands are met. We want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended.”

With a smile on his face, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau admitted to reporters, “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. … There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”

They haven’t stopped. Here’s a story from last September, just one of dozens of stories about their atrocities. Boko Haram members on motorcycles shot down Christians walking home from church. They killed eight and wounded others. This was part of a week in which they killed six civilians and three soldiers traveling in a convoy, and then beheaded a village chief and his son before setting fire to many homes in their village. They shot the villagers as they fled, killing two.

And just a few days ago, they kidnapped the 22 girls.

The terrorists of Boko Haram haven’t stopped and they won’t stop. After one church bombing in 2011, a spokesman boasted, “There will never be peace, until our demands are met. We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended.”

A Demonic Assault

This attack on Christians is a demonic assault. A spokesman for Boko Haram announced in 2012 they were planning  a “war on Christians.” They told a local reporter, “We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”

We need to remember that the attack on all of the others is also demonic. The devil hates mankind. He hates Christians in particular, because we bear the name of Jesus Christ. But he wants all people to suffer, because we’re all made in the image of God.

Look at the misery Boko Haram has created. Crux reported last year: “The seven-year Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people, driven some 2.6 million from their homes and spread to neighboring countries.” The famine-like conditions these terrorist have created “are killing children and starving some 2 million Nigerians still trapped in northeast areas by Boko Haram. Most of the refugees are subsistence farmers who have been unable to farm for years now.”

Americans don’t like to think about the demonic. We don’t want to believe anyone else is really serving evil. Our scholars and pundits try to explain such evil in economic and political terms. That can be partially true, of course, but it doesn’t change the reality of evil or the fact that it is at work in all of this horror. As the Apostle Paul reminded the Christians in Ephesus, we need to be reminded, “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness” (Eph. 6:12, 13).

We need to listen to our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ who live in the midst of the Islamist terror. They can tell us about responding to the kind of demonic evil Boko Haram has unleashed on the Christians of northern Nigeria.

Only God Can Save Us

The Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese called Christians throughout Nigeria to join in focused prayer and take concerted action. Joseph Bagobiri told Vatican Radio, “Since we have no government that would listen to our plight, we have carried our case directly to God. It is only God that can save us from our present situation. Our hope in Him is never in vain since he knows our problem and He will deliver us one day just as he delivered the people of Israel from the hands of the Egyptians.”

These Christians don’t suffer only from Boko Haram. They suffer from the Muslim-dominated governments and society of northern Nigeria. They suffer from what the bishop called “structural injustices.” These include the unfair distribution of goods and infrastructure, with Muslims getting more than Christians. It also includes discrimination in holding political and public offices, so Christians have few people in power to defend them. Their lives are hard even without Boko Haram.

The courageous Christians of Nigeria are staying, and praying. They are losing their freedom, and shedding their blood. Bishop Bagobiri says: “We as a Church must evolve new ways on how we can face violence without losing faith. It is our prayer that God will give us strength and the needed direction on how to make Christianity survive despite the constant attacks and persecution.”