Boko Haram Terrorists Hooked on the Jihadist Drug of Choice: Viagra

Every time the Nigerian military raids Boko Haram hideouts in northeast Nigeria, soldiers report intriguing stockpiles quite napart from the predictable guns, bombs and machetes. Often these include magical amulets and trinkets, and, frequently, quantities of Viagra and similar sex-enhancing pharmaceuticals.

There is a reason for the obsession with erectile function, and it is common to most of the extreme jihadist movements, especially those, like Boko Haram, that have pledged allegiance to the so-called caliphate that claims the name “Islamic State”: the promise of sex is a great recruiting tool, and sexual prowess is deemed to have mystical powers.

Thus in Iraq, ISIS has a record enslaving women and girls deemed “non-believers,”  then handing them over to the not-so-tender ministrations of men with years of pent-up frustrations. In Nigeria, Boko Haram has made the kidnap of young women, like the girls taken from Chibok school two years ago, almost a trademark of its movement. Such practices, from the jihadist point of view, have a couple of benefits. They sow terror at the same time they attract young men to jihadist ranks.

Read More- The Daily Beast

Image courtesy of EPA