by Mike Swetnam

This Mother’s Day is marred by the abduction of several hundred Nigerian schoolgirls. The only thing their mother’s wanted was an education for their children.

Nigeria is a secular country that has been trying to provide a balanced and secular education to its population.

Boko Haram, the terror group that kidnapped the children, like all Al Qaeda groups, opposes any form of secular education especially for girls. This group is a prime example of extremism and extreme acts to prevent the rational and thoughtful functioning of society. Extremism, particularly religious extremism, is destructive and wrong. We cannot let this faulty, old thinking continue.

Many have called for the elimination of groups like Boko Haram and Al Qaeda because these group practice terror and the killing of the innocent. But we need to eliminate these groups for an even more fundamental reason. They advocate government dictated by religion. They demand the subjugation of woman. They are dedicated to the destruction of secular and rational governments and societies.

Nothing has fueled the progress of the human race more than rational secular education and governments based on these ideals. Clearly the founders of the USA understood the fundamental nature of this concept when they mandated a separation of church and state as a key part of our Constitution.

Our future depends on a free and open school system not just for American citizens but also for all world citizens.

Freedom, democracy, and security of any form are dependent on an informed and educated population. When society fails to create and maintain that informed and rational population, it FAILS.

We need to destroy groups like Boko Haram and the ideology that fuels them. Not just because they represent a ruthless terror group that kidnaps children, but also because they stand in the way of human freedom and progress.