Sometimes a person’s gotta wonder what gets into some people’s minds.

Take Boko Haram for example. These self-proclaimed Islamists in Nigeria are doing more harm to the reputation of Muslims worldwide (but especially in the West) than anyone since Al Qaida used airplanes as weapons to kill thousands of civilians a decade and a half ago.

Kidnapping more than 270 young girls from a boarding school to prevent their getting an education? Forcing them into “marriage” (actually, slavery) in the name of religion?

Slaughtering more than 300 in Gamboru Ngala on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon just this week?

As reported by Michelle Faul in the World Post, “Boko Haram’s five-year-old Islamic uprising has claimed the lives of thousands of Muslims and Christians. More than 1,500 people have died in their attacks so far this year. The insurgents say Western influences are corrupting and they want to impose an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million of whom half are Christian.”

How can we stop this idiocy in the name of Islam? It does no one any good, least of all Muslims — especially those of us who live in the United States.