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FIRST ON FOX: A nice array of non secular freedom advocates has banded together in asking President Biden to place Nigeria lend a hand on the Say Division’s checklist of international locations of particular self-discipline (CPC) on non secular freedom, citing the continuing violence, killing and displacement of Christians by the arms of Boko Haram, Fulani militants and various largely Muslim aggressors.
Closing month, Secretary of Say Antony Blinken removed Nigeria from the checklist.
A coalition of 12 organizations and 30 advocates, alongside side Christians who confronted persecution within the Muslim world, luxuriate in Andrew Brunson (a passe prisoner in Turkey), Mariam Ibraheem (who modified into as soon as sentenced to demise for “apostasy” in Sudan) and Joy Bishara (a survivor of the Boko Haram kidnappings), praised passe Secretary of Say Mike Pompeo’s resolution to space Nigeria on the CPC checklist in December 2020 and entreated Biden to return to that designation.
“The ongoing violence, killing, and displacement against Christians and others possess handiest increased,” the advocates, organized by the Family Analysis Council (FRC), wrote in a letter equipped to Fox Info. “In point of truth, all the design in which thru 2021, massacres happen virtually nightly, while by day, younger boys are killed within the fields. Pregnant ladies are brutally dismembered, their babies mutilated forward of their eyes. And now, an whole church congregation has been abducted and held captive.”
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“In most traditional months, gangs of Fulani militants, Boko Haram terrorist, and various armed radicals possess develop into even more brazen, torching whole villages and farms, ambushing, and killing innocent folks in gory, unspeakable ways,” the letter notes. “Sadly, the victims are on the total focused as a result of their non secular identity.” It notes that “blasphemy approved guidelines enforced by narrate-sanctioned Shari’a courts” and that accusations of “blasphemy for insulting the Prophet Muhammad would be met with a demise sentence.”
A church that residents narrate modified into as soon as burned by Boko Haram militants in Damasak, Nigeria, March 24, 2015. (REUTERS/Joe Penney)
(Reuters)
The letter cites a Catholic Info Agency file from July, noting that an estimated 3,462 Christians had been killed in Nigeria within the first 200 days of 2021, which equates to 17 Christians murdered each day in Africa’s most populous nation.
“For years, the Nigerian authorities has accomplished virtually nothing to hand over this violence,” the letter provides. The advocates argue that Nigeria would possibly perchance well well additionally honest peaceful handiest safe removed from the CPC checklist after having “demonstrated enormous growth” on non secular freedom, but since that has now not befell, Nigeria’s removal from the checklist “sends the unsuitable message to governments around the field who rob in or tolerate egregious violations of non secular freedom.”
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Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who got arrested in Turkey in October 2016 on trumped-up espionage charges but released in October 2018, told Fox Info the Biden administration “appears to now not grasp the utter of non secular persecution severely.”
“In 2018, while I modified into as soon as imprisoned in Turkey, my daughter spoke at the Say Division’s Ministerial to Come Non secular Freedom, advocating on my behalf,” Brunson, now serving as FRC’s particular adviser for non secular freedom, stated in an announcement to Fox Info. “The next three hundred and sixty five days, as a result of the concerted advocacy and action taken by the U.S. authorities, I modified into as soon as able to talk at the 2019 Ministerial as a free man. In 2021, the Say Division cancelled the Ministerial to Come Non secular Freedom in space of form on the momentum.”
Dilapidated President Trump prays between Tony Perkins, president of the Family Analysis Council, and Pastor Andrew Brunson at the Family Analysis Council’s annual gala in Washington, D.C., Oct. 12, 2019. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
“Here is an instance of how the Biden administration appears to now not grasp the utter of non secular persecution severely,” Brunson stated. “That the Say Division would grasp Nigeria’s designation as a Country of Notify Predicament—even when Christians are being killed in Nigeria virtually per week—is terribly discouraging.
“I know first-hand the difference that the US’ non secular freedom advocacy can safe,” he added. “We can safe a difference in Nigeria too, if our leaders safe to retain the road.”
Sam Brownback, passe governor of Kansas and ambassador-at-gorgeous for global non secular freedom below passe President Trump, told Fox Info the “kinds” pushed Biden to grasp Nigeria from the CPC checklist.
Samuel Brownback, U.S. ambassador-at-gorgeous for global non secular freedom below passe President Trump, speaks in Turkey.
(AP, File)
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“The types won,” Brownback stated in an announcement. “They don’t would in point of fact like to undercover agent any non secular differences in Nigeria. They imagine there is no such thing as a non secular factor to the conflict and that within the occasion that they undercover agent religion is a section of the conflict, this would possibly perchance well safe the scenario worse.”
He urged that the Biden administration believes that “within the occasion that they ignore non secular differences, the topic will lunge away.”
Alliance Defending Freedom World, World Christian Predicament, ChinaAid, The Orthodox Public Affairs Committee and the Church of Scientology National Affairs Community joined FRC on the letter, among various organizations. Famous individual signers consist of FRC President Tony Perkins, passe Congressman Frank Wolf, Anglican Church of Nigeria Director of Communications Hassan John, Evangelical Church Successful All President Rev. Dr. Stephen Baba Panya, Anglican Bishop of Jos Rev. Dr. Benjamin Kwashi and Christian Freedom World President and CEO Wendy Wright.
