Religious freedom campaigners are urging the American government to acknowledge the escalating persecution of Christians in Nigeria as President Joe Biden hosts officials from over 40 African countries this week.
In the nation’s capital, the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit will continue through Thursday, December 15. Despite recent debate over Nigeria’s handling of religious conflict, Biden has embraced Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari among other African leaders.
Religious and human rights groups, notably Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, claim that persecution of Christians and other religious minorities, including minority sects within Islam, is increasing in Nigeria (USCIRF).
However, for the second year running, Nigeria has been left off of the list of “countries of special concern” for violating religious freedom (CPC). The CPC list is “the most potent instrument the U.S. government has to impact the condition of religious freedom in other nations,” according to Sean Nelson of ADF.
Many people were startled and upset by the State Department’s decision to exclude Nigeria from the list, including ADF and the USCIRF. An ADF petition to add Nigeria to the CPC list said that doing so had given rise to “the empowerment of Islamic terrorists, radical militants, and other extremists who murder, torture, and kidnap Christians, as well as Muslims who reject extremism.”
According to a statement released by USCIRF on December 2, the organization is “extremely disappointed that the Secretary of State did not implement our recommendations and recognize the severity of the religious freedom violations that both USCIRF and the State Department have documented in (Nigeria).” USCIRF made it quite clear where it stood by declaring that “there is no reason for the State Department’s unwillingness to recognize Nigeria.”
According to a USCIRF policy report from September on the violence in Nigeria, the violence committed in Nigeria by “militant Islamist organizations” has had “devastating humanitarian and religious freedom implications.”
As previously covered by CNA, Reuters revealed a huge, enforced abortion program by the Nigerian military as well as a continuing rape as a weapon of war campaign by Islamist terrorists targeting Nigerian women in minority religious groups.
According to ADF, this year’s “Pentecost massacre,” in which several Catholics attending Mass in Owo were murdered, is only one instance of the growing religious violence that Islamist extremists are doing. While jihadist organizations like the Islamic State West Africa Province, an ISIS caliphate, and Boko Haram terrorize the Nigerian populace, the Nigerian government mostly does little to stop gang violence and acts of hatred towards Christians.
Nigeria is one of the riskiest countries in the world for Christians, according to Nelson. “We know that hundreds of Christians in Nigeria are slain every year for their religion, and individuals are silenced, imprisoned, and suffer lethal mob violence based on blasphemy claims,” Nelson said in a statement to CNA.
Priorities listed by the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit include increasing economic opportunity, advancing safety, democracy, and education, as well as addressing the climate issue.
“Human rights issues should not be disregarded or marginalized at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit,” Nelson told CNA, adding: “The Nigerian government has neglected these concerns, and the Biden administration has turned a blind eye as well. Who will defend religious freedom if the United States doesn’t do so in the face of demonstrable persecution?
According to the International Religious Freedom Act, a country’s status as a “Country of Particular Concern” should only be determined by the state of religious freedom there. Nelson told CNA: “Whenever such egregious, systematic, and ongoing violations of religious freedom are taking place in a country — and Nigeria undeniably meets those requirements — the U.S. should speak out by placing them on the Country of Particular Concern list. Instead, the State Department has not given Congress or others any real explanation for its decision to leave Nigeria off the Country of Particular Concern list for the past two years.
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