By Ryan Foley A leading conservative evangelical advocacy group is calling on the Trump administration to consider sanctions against...
By Ryan Foley
A leading conservative evangelical advocacy group is calling
on the Trump administration to consider sanctions against Nigeria in response
to the government’s inability to thwart communal and extremist violence that
has led to the deaths of thousands of Christians in recent years.
In a policy paper released last week, the Washington,
D.C.-based Family Research Council called on the U.S. government to impose
“hard-hitting sanctions” against Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and consider
cutting aid to the West African country until steps are taken to address the
violence routinely committed against Christian communities.
The new report, titled “The Crisis of Christian Persecution
in Nigeria,” was written by FRC Senior Fellow for International Religious
Freedom Lela Gilbert.
Gilbert and others working to restore religious freedom for
Christians are calling on the Trump administration to appoint a State
Department envoy for Nigeria as Boko Haram extremists and radical herdsmen
continue to attack and kill hundreds of civilians each year.
The individual serving in this position would be responsible
for making sure that violent attacks against Christians are documented
accurately.
In the fiscal year 2020, the U.S. provided Nigeria with
nearly half a billion dollars in foreign assistance. Gilbert’s report suggests
making the foreign aid “conditional upon specific demands, such as governmental
curbs on deadly attacks.”
In an interview with The Christian Post, Gilbert called on
the global Christian community to rally in support of Christians facing
persecution and death in Nigeria.
“We really have to pray for our Nigerian brothers and
sisters because they are facing horrendous attacks and constant danger in some
places,” Gilbert said. “We believe in doing all we can do otherwise, of course.
But we also want to ask God to intervene to help these people. If our voices
are raised as one, I know that He’ll hear us.”
Persecution and slaughter of Christians has been a common
occurrence in Nigeria in recent years and the situation doesn't seem to be
improving.
Referring to the country as a “killing field of defenseless
Christians,” a report compiled by the Nigeria-based International Society for
Civil Liberties & Rule of Law earlier this year estimates that between
11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded between June 2015 and March
2020. The same group estimated that as many as 1,200 Christians have been
killed in the first six months of 2020.
June 2015 was when Buhari first came to power.
Most of the bloodshed against Nigerian Christians has been
attributed to radical members of the nomadic Fulani ethnic group, who have been
accused of carrying out many brutal overnight attacks against predominantly
Christian farming communities in the countries farm-rich Middle Belt, the
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa
Province in northeast Nigeria.
Gilbert’s paper criticized Buhari, an ethnic Fulani, for
doing “virtually nothing to address the behavior of his fellow tribesmen.”
“Even after President Donald Trump publicly confronted him
about violent attacks on Nigerian Christians, Buhari has not offered a
substantive response to the crisis,” she wrote.
Christian leaders in Nigeria and some international human
rights groups have described what has taken place in their country as a
“genocide.”
Yet, as Gilbert noted, the U.S. and other western
governments have taken little action over the years to hold the Nigerian
government accountable for its apathy toward the genocide that has taken place
in their country. Although the State Department last December added Nigeria to
its “special watch list” of countries that engage in or tolerate severe
violations of religious freedom, advocates want to see more action taken.
In her report, Gilbert cited the “deeply secular perspective
of many diplomats, intelligence, and media talking heads” as one reason for the
complacency regarding the crisis in Nigeria.
“These secularists greatly diminish or utterly overlook the
role religious faith plays — for better or for worse — in the world,” she said.
“More than a few policy-makers and media voices are convinced that religion
simply amounts to cultural norms or a picturesque assortment of traditions
rather than deeply held beliefs.”
Gilbert’s report also pointed to the perception that climate
change is the driving factor behind the Fulani radical attacks on Christian
farmers as fertile land is becoming more scarce.
“Initially, Fulani violence against Christians was
attributed to climate change,” she wrote. “It has been widely reported that due
to drought and the receding of pastures for their flocks, desperate Fulani
migrant herders began to confiscate land on which to graze their animals.
However, due to ever-increasing evidence of rampant bloodshed, outrageous
brutality, and Islamist chants and declarations during attacks, the Fulani
marauders’ jihadi intentions have been exposed.”
In spite of the lack of “observable concrete action” taken
to address the terror against Christians in Nigeria thus far, Gilbert remains
optimistic.
“The Trump administration has done more than any other
administration in my memory to intervene in matters of religious freedom and
Christian persecution,” Gilbert told CP.
“We’re hoping that some of these things will happen before
the election. But of course, even if they don’t, then we’ll continue to push
for them. We know that we have a responsive administration, and we really hope
these things will be addressed quickly.”
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