Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the House, I thank the government and I thank our representative the excellent member for Grayndler. The social media campaign to 'bring back our girls' has resonated worldwide. The question is: why? Partially it is because increasingly and commendably around the world people believe all young women are entitled to a proper education and all the benefits that come from education. But it was the grotesque insolence of Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, who said he would liberate these girls by selling them off into forced marriages, that triggered the international revulsion at these kidnappings. That happened about two or three weeks later, and that is when the international campaign took off.

Whether we have a lack of international or Nigerian government leadership or not, people around the world, including the Islamic world—for instance Twitter friend of mine in Turkey, a prominent compere on the popular Turkish station A9—understand that this cruelty to these young women is a threat to our common humanity, to civilisation and to all the advances in relations between the genders that we have seen since medieval times.

Boko Haram are not, as some people have said, just extremists; they are jihadist terrorists. They hate modernity. They want us to return to 6th-century medievalism. They want to enslave women entirely and force them back into the Dark Ages, where they are owned, dressed and controlled by men. Boko Haram has come to mean 'Western education is forbidden', as the member for Berowra said, in the Hausa language. They are fighting against secular education, as the Nigerian jihadists see it.

This Al-Qaeda franchised group is amongst the world's most violent, having murdered nearly 5,000 of their fellow Nigerians in the last four years, targeting Christian people particularly in Nigeria—the majority of the Nigerian population—is also one of their favoured tactics, which is explained, they claim, by the Koranic verse: 'Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors'.

Other practices Boko Haram are opposed to include: voting in elections, wearing trousers or shirts, civil rights, gender equality, respect for minorities, freedom of movement and association, and freedom of religion—all of the things we must defend in what I regard as a civilisational struggle.

Boko Haram is not only a disturbing force for evil in Nigeria but all over North Africa. We need to ask some tough questions of the Nigerian government and I am very grateful to the member for Brisbane for affording us that opportunity in a couple of days' time.

I agree with the member for Berowra that the kidnapping of these girls is a threat to all of us. It is a symbolic challenge to all of human progress. Some people still regard the war on terror as politically incorrect; the forces of the United States, France, Israel and other countries kill some of the leaders of this group in their efforts to free these young women, that should be our absolute priority—that would not be something I would mourn. I regard this not as a criminal matter; this is a civilisational fight, a war against terrorism. Therefore, in the most profound way, I want to agree with the member for Canberra and the member for Brisbane when I say these young women in Nigeria represent all of us; they represent the progress of civilisation. I join the member for Canberra in saying: bring back our girls.

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