‘Christian Genocide’ Charges Raised in Nigeria
Oct. 19—In the last months, the uneasy balance between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria has been heated to the point of boiling over. And now a "Christian genocide" by its Muslim majority narrative is being pushed to promote an attack on Africa's largest country.
In response to continued provocations, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) issued a rare statement Oct. 15, “Let’s call a spade a spade about the enemies of Nigeria,” kicking back against the “recent false allegation circulating on some international platforms and the social media that there is a systematic genocidal campaign against Christians in Nigeria.” The “primary objective” of this campaign, the NSCIA claimed, “is to create an alibi for the ongoing genocide in the Gaza.” While the statement goes on to point to the internal (Nigerian) operatives who are, no doubt, contributing to worsening the situation, there is plenty to indicate that foreign unclean hands are also at work here.
A report was released two months ago by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (which is located in the south-eastern Christian region of Nigeria) that asserted that jihadists had killed more than 7,000 Christians, and kidnapped a similar but still larger number of believers—in just the first eight months of this year. Ignoring that the majority of those killed by jihadists in Nigeria were actually northern Muslims, the report went on to say that the jihadists intend to kill an additional 112 million Christians (almost the entire Christian population) in the southeastern third of the country by 2050. The report then demanded that international aid to Nigeria be suspended until the government (currently run by two Muslims) showed its willingness to comply.
A month after that report was released, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act, with exactly zero co-sponsors, which demands sanctions on Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kasim Shetima, and further demands that Nigeria be declared a Country of Particular Concern, which comes with its own restrictions. Cruz’s move has since gotten additional support from two Congressmen—Riley Moore and Chris Smith—who have each written letters encouraging President Donald Trump to reinstate restrictions (which Trump instated in 2020 and Biden removed in 2021) on Nigeria.
Things have now taken a turn for the bizarre. Talk-show host Bill Maher—a declared atheist—suddenly raised the issue on his late-night talk-show Sept. 26 “Real Time With Bill Maher,” in the middle of a discussion with Republican Rep. Nancy Pace (SC) on the persecution of Christians in Syria, Maher blurted out, “I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria.” Obviously getting his slanted information and figures from the above cited report, Maher added that “This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country….”