Last week, Nigerian security forces rescued 308 people abducted in separate attacks in the northern states of Kwara and Niger. President Bola Tinubu hailed it as the "largest rescue operation ever carried out" in a single day by joint security forces.
The victims had spent six months in captivity.
The survivors are now speaking. And their stories are harrowing.
Mary Ishaya recalled days without food, being asked to bury fellow hostages who died in captivity. "We saw death and suffering," she said. Amira Saliu, a nurse among the freed, helped about ten pregnant women deliver their babies in the forest; "I had no choice but to use my bare hands," she said. Hauwa Saliu, whose husband was killed in the attack, said the captors constantly asked if she had accepted their preachings. She refused.
One hundred and sixty-three were freed. Thirteen remain missing.
We should celebrate the rescue. But we should also ask: What kind of ideology produces this?
WHAT HAPPENED IN WORO
On February 3, 2026, suspected jihadists attacked the village of Woro in Kwara State. They had sent a letter announcing their intention to preach. No one showed up. In apparent retaliation, they burned houses, killed upwards of 165 people, and kidnapped roughly the same number.
Large parts of the village were reduced to piles of ash and rubble. Amnesty International said many of the dead were found with their hands and feet tied, some had had their throats slit, others shot dead.
The jihadists wanted the residents to renounce the Nigerian government and its constitution and instead follow their teachings, effectively imposing a parallel system of rule.
This is not random violence. This is a strategy.
THE THREE STAGES OF JIHAD
David Wood, a Christian apologist who has studied Islam extensively, outlines the three stages of jihad, a pattern that follows the life of Muhammad and has been repeated throughout Islamic history.
Stage 1: Stealth Jihad
When Muslims are weak in numbers and resources, they promote peace and tolerance outwardly, but never inwardly. They practice Taqiyya (dissimulation), preparing for jihad behind the scenes, and claim victim status to win the support of well-meaning non-Muslims.
Stage 2: Defensive Jihad
When there are enough Muslims and resources to defend the Islamic community from persecution or criticism, Muslims are commanded to wage defensive jihad, fighting unbelievers who pose a physical or intellectual threat to Islam.
Stage 3: Offensive Jihad
When Muslims establish a majority and achieve political power in an area, they are commanded to engage in offensive jihad, violently subjugating non-Muslims simply for being non-Muslims, and striving to expand their political dominion.
"Jihad proceeds in stages," Wood explains. "Muhammad's life models progressive stages of jihad which later influenced Islamic history and law".
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Look around the world.
Western countries, including the United States, are firmly in Stage 1. Muslims are a minority. They promote peace outwardly. They claim victim status. They build institutions. They prepare.
Parts of Europe and Africa, including Nigeria, are in Stage 2. There are enough Muslims to defend the Islamic community, and jihad is waged defensively against unbelievers who pose a threat.
Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states are in Stage 3. They have achieved political power and enforce Islamic law, subjugating non-Muslims.
The pattern is clear. It has been repeated for 1,400 years. Only the ignorant don't see it.
ISLAM SPREADS BY THE SWORD
This is not a new observation. The history is unambiguous.
The first major Islamic attack on Christian territory occurred in 636 AD. The Ottoman conquests continued the pattern for centuries. Large swathes of the Old World, from India in the east to Spain in the west, were conquered and consolidated by the sword of Islam.
Muhammad himself is reported to have said: "The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer."
So much for a "religion of peace."
The term "religion of peace" is a 20th-century invention; a public relations tool designed to make Islam palatable to Western audiences. It has no basis in Islamic theology or history. It is marketing, not truth.
A FINAL WORD OF HOPE
I am not saying every Muslim is a radical. I am not saying every mosque is a breeding ground for terror.
But I am saying this: there is something fundamental about Islam that lends itself to this pattern. The theology, the history, the texts, they sanction violence against non-Muslims. They make it permissible, even meritorious.
We can ignore these issues if we like. We can pretend the violence is just "a few bad apples." But we must not ignore those sounding the alarm, people with intimate, undeniable experience of the consequences of this ideology.
My heart breaks for Nigeria. For the 308+ who were freed, and the many who are still missing. For the families who lost loved ones in Woro. For the Christians being hunted and killed across the country.
But even in the midst of this darkness, there is hope.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ~ John 1:5
I continue to pray for those under persecution in Nigeria and other places where the blade of this so-called "religion of peace" is bloodthirsty. I am praying for the West, that it would wake up before it is too late.
And I continue to pray that the Church would rise up, not in hatred, but in love; not in violence, but in truth; not in fear, but in faith.
Because in the end, God's love wins.
Always.