MUSLIM GENOCIDE OF CHRISTIANS - IT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 500 YEARS

Family Research Council Denounces Christian ‘Genocide’ in Nigeria

KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty

THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.

25 Jun 202025

3:04

The U.S.-based Family Research Council (FRC) has denounced the “bloodbath” taking place in Nigeria, as radical Islamists carry on a largely unreported slaughter of the nation’s Christians.

The “dangerous darkness” of radical Islam with its genocidal intentions is sweeping across the African continent and is particularly lethal in Nigeria, Lela Gilbert writes for FRC.

In recent decades, “tens of thousands of Nigerians have been slaughtered,” Gilbert writes, and yet “their stories rarely appear in mainstream Western news reports” despite the fact that it is “increasingly clear that another genocide is already taking place.”

Gilbert cites a number of the most recent examples of the ongoing carnage, such as the Islamist massacre of 81 people during an attack on Foduma Kolomaiya village in northeast Nigeria earlier this month as well as twin attacks that killed 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians in Borno State on June 13.

Similarly, jihadists recently gunned down a Nigerian Christian pastor along with his wife who were working on their farm in Taraba State, leaving orphaned the couple’s eight children, ages 1 to 19, Gilbert notes.

“In what is being noted as systematic direct war against Christianity in Nigeria, pastors, Christian leaders and seminarians are either being kidnapped or killed every week,” read a statement from the Hausa Christians Foundation following the murders. “Christians in Nigeria have been the target of many attacks by the vicious Boko Haram jihadist Islamist terrorists, herdsmen attacks and many other kidnappings in recent times.”

“Brethren, the body of Christ is suffering so much harm in the hands of these evil jihadists. The government of Nigeria seems to care less about the plights of Christians [in] Nigeria,” the statement said.

Christian faithful hold signs as they march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja. The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria asked Christians and other people to pray for security and to denounce the barbaric killings by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. ( KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)

Just days earlier, a 22-year-old Christian university student was beaten, raped, and killed by a blow to the head with a fire extinguisher in a church in Benin City, Nigeria. Uwaila Vera Omozuwa was assaulted by a group of unknown men while she was reading alone in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) church.

In her report, Gilbert identifies two factions of Islamist jihadis as the main perpetrators of the ongoing assault on Christians: the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, now partially aligned with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and the Fulani militants, who operate throughout the country.

There is also “mounting evidence” that the Nigerian government under Muhammadu Buhari, who is himself Fulani, is “somehow complicit in the Islamist groups’ assaults,” Gilbert notes.

While no one really knows the precise numbers of Nigeria’s victims “thanks to mass graves, torched villages, chaotic aftermaths, and disappearances,” the magnitude of the problem is “horrifying,” she states.

Genocide in Nigeria: Calling It What It Is, Calling for It to End

  By John Stonestreet and Shane Morris | June 25, 2020 | 10:51am EDT

 

A cross stands against the sky. (Photo credit: CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

In terms of lives lost, families separated, people imprisoned, and churches shut down, the 21st century has, so far, been the worst period of persecution against Christians in recorded history.

Among the hottest persecution hot-spots is Nigeria. According to religious freedom watchdog Open Doors USA, Nigeria ranks at #12 worldwide for persecution of Christians.

Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram is the known villain in Nigeria, and justifiably so. They are among the most brutal Islamist radical terror groups in the world. Just last week, attacks in northeastern Nigeria by a Boko Haram splinter-group left dozens of civilians and soldiers dead. Back in January, the group beheaded Nigerian pastor Lawan Andimi. Kidnapped from his village and forced to negotiate for his release with the government, Andimi wouldn’t break. Instead, he turned his hostage video into a stunning testimony to Christ.

Still, as bad as Boko Haram is, much of the recent bloodshed in Nigeria has been perpetrated by militant Hausa-Fulani herdsmen. This largely Muslim ethnic group specializes in night raids on Christian villages in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. In a statement last June, Nigerian Christian leaders claimed that “over 6,000 persons—mostly children, women, and the aged—[have been] maimed and killed in night raids by armed Fulani herdsmen.” They also described the “continuous abduction of under-aged Christian girls by Muslim youths” for forced marriages.

According to Open Doors, these attacks are essentially “religious cleansing,” attempts to "eradicate Christianity” from the region. According to Nigerian Christians, the more appropriate word is "genocide."

The term fits.

As I pointed out last March, genocide has been carefully defined by the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and the word should not be tossed around carelessly. Genocide is action intended to destroy in whole or in part “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”

Clearly, genocide is what Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsman are after in Nigeria. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari's administration, however, denies this. President Buhari, by the way, is the son of a Fulani chief.

Thankfully, there are international voices taking the plight of Nigerian Christians seriously. The U.K. Parliament released a report putting the G-word front and center. Entitled, “Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?” the report issues a stirring call to Britain and the world “to speak out on behalf of all the survivors and victims of violence,” and “to highlight the seriousness of the situation and the level of injustice that Nigerian Christians face.”

Describing the report in Forbes (and by the way, good for Forbes for covering this story), one human rights activist called for “comprehensive investigations and prosecutions” by bodies like the International Criminal Court. But, she insisted, the first step has to be that the world admits “the nature and severity of the atrocities. The crimes must be recognized for what they are and ‘a most misleading campaign’ is not that name.”

The U.S. must lead the way. Earlier this month, an executive order by President Trump made religious freedom a foreign policy and national security priority. It’s now time to make act on those words. Nigerian Christians can’t afford to wait.

Besides calling this crisis what it is, a genocide, the U.S. could ease the process for asylum-seekers and immigrants from Nigeria. Nigeria was among the six countries President Trump added to the travel and immigration ban in February and, currently, Nigerian refugees hoping to flee to the United States must prove their need by submitting an exhaustive stack of paperwork. Those in danger should not have to go to so much trouble to demonstrate what the world should already know.

Please, consider supporting Open Doors and other organizations that raise awareness, advocate for, and offer support for the persecuted. Even so, as important as political and financial assistance are, Christians in Nigeria need one thing from us above anything else: our prayers.

John Stonestreet is President of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview and BreakPoint co-host. Shane Morris is a senior writer at BreakPoint, a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s also written for Summit Ministries and The Christian Post, and blogs regularly at Patheos. Shane lives with his wife and three children.