I Would Go Mad

I can’t get past the militant Islamist abduction of 276— the latest count—of the young girls in Nigeria.

As an interfaith minister I am compelled to try to understand other faiths and other cultures. I have been struggling. I have read the Koran and I know that women are seen and treated differently than we are in countries of Judeo/Christian heritage.

At the same time, I also know that in no way would all Islamists support such an horrific action as that abduction any more than all pro-life Christians would burn down a Planned Parenthood clinic that offered abortion counseling and procedures or murder a doctor that served at such a clinic.

I keep picturing my daughter at ten years old: the soft, plump skin of her face not yet molded to the bones, her body still untouched by puberty, her eyes, the innocent clear blue of a summer day.  What if she had been abducted? What if she were to be sold into slavery as the wife/possession of some man in all likelihood, twenty or more years older?

And what if I lived in a country that, at least to all appearances, did nothing about it?

What if, when commanded to appear by the president of my country, I was unable to get to the southern capital city because there were no flights and/or I was too poor to get there any other way but on foot, which would take days and therefore—even if I was willing, and I would be---to walk until my feet bled clear to my ankles, I still couldn’t make it in time for the official gathering of the mothers?

What if I asked a friend who lived in the capital city to represent me, to plead for government action to save my daughter and, instead of being allowed to speak, she was arrested for impersonation?

I would go mad.

Nigeria, Nigeria! You are a people from an ancient, soulful land. What has become of you?