Recently, Secretary Blinken failed to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.
ON FOX FIRST – Numerous human rights and religious groups are putting pressure on the Biden administration to identify Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (“CPC”) after the barbaric massacre of over 200 Christians last month.
Two dozen interest groups, including Advancing American Freedom, Alliance Defending Freedom, the Hudson Institute, former Ambassador Sam Brownback, and former defense and national security officials, chastised the State Department in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken for its “refusal” to designate Nigeria as a CPC, calling the lack of action “unconscionable.”
“Nearly 200 Nigerian Christians were martyred while celebrating Christmas less than two weeks ago.” One source claims that these Christians were ‘executed for sport.’ “Only a few weeks ago, the Christian Association of Nigeria received a letter threatening them not to celebrate Christmas,” according to the letter issued Monday.
“The international religious freedom community stands outraged at your refusal to hold these acts of evil to account,” the statement reads.
According to the letter, the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Nigeria-based non-governmental organization, over 52,000 Christians have been slaughtered and over 14 million Christians have been driven to escape Nigeria since 2009.
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According to the letter, Intersociety discovered that 18,000 churches and 2,200 schools had been attacked during the same time period.
Blinken said on January 4 that he had identified a number of countries, including Iran and Russia, as CPCs, but Nigeria was noticeably absent from the list.
According to the letter, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for a congressional hearing “within hours” of Blinken’s declaration, and international religious freedom organizations “publicly criticized” his decision.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a federal government commission established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Its commissioners are selected by the president and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders.
Nigeria, a Boko Haram stronghold, was added to the list during the Trump administration but has been removed since 2021.
According to the Pew Research Center, Nigeria has the most Christians of any African country, with over 80 million believers.
“The world looks to the United States as a beacon of hope and liberty.” “Religious freedom is rooted in the American founding, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and fundamental to what it means to be an American,” according to the letter.
“When the United States stands silent as evil runs amok, the world takes notice,” it goes on to say.
