NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
When the religious skeptic and television presenter stood out. Bill Maher highlighted the plight of Christians in Nigeria in September during a conversation with South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace, raised a conversation that has been a constant tension for many of us in the humanitarian space: the conflicts that cause the greatest suffering do not always correlate with the greatest attention.
Reflecting on the atrocities taking place in Nigeria, Mayer lamented on the show: “This is much more of an attempted genocide than what is happening in Gaza. They are literally trying to eliminate the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the children protesting this?”
Here’s the thing: the suffering of Gazans is legitimate. Just as Israel’s suffering on October 7, 2023 and beyond was legitimate. And so is the suffering in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Nigeria. What differs is the attention we pay and our willingness to sit through the complexities and discomforts necessary to arrive at lasting solutions.
I grew up in Niger. I spent my childhood in Sahel region at a time when a Christian in a Muslim-majority region could expect to live in relative peace and optimism. Growing up, I met many mixed-religion Nigerian families who lived in harmony. As a nation and as a region, we had hope. The promises of the green revolution, trade and economic community in West Africa made us anticipate a growth trajectory.
The EU and the West have lost their last security partner in the Sahel, as Niger announced a new alliance with Russia. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
CRUZ FACES NIGERIA OVER HIS CLAIMS OF 50,000 CHRISTIANS KILLED SINCE 2009 IN RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE
The Nigeria of today is not like that of my youth. Climate change, capitalism, debt, corruption, the COVID-19 crisis and changing donor trends have led to more poverty, less hope and more conflict. It has been tragic to watch my home region become a dangerous zone where tolerance has been replaced by extremism and religion has become a weapon to fill the void left when hope was scattered and hunger increased.
When people are desperate, we see a rise in extremism and religious persecution. Nigeria is divided almost according to cardinal ordinances into Muslim-majority regions and Christian and Catholic sections. Factors rooted in colonial times, combined with climate changes that make a nomadic lifestyle unsustainable, have led to unsustainable animosity that transcends religious affiliations.
While Liam Karr, leader of the Africa Critical Threats team with the American Enterprise Institute, rightly breaks down, when religious overtones are superimposed on an existing ethnic divide and resources are depleted, conflict arises.
Being a Christian in Nigeria is no longer a simple matter. Jihadist organizations, including Boko HaramThey have carried out religious killings for the past 16 years, massacring 125,009 Christians and more than 60,000 “liberal” Muslims who do not share the extremist views of the predominant groups. In that time 19,100 churches were looted. Now, according to Open Doors, more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world combined, even though Nigeria ranks seventh among the 50 countries best known for the persecution of Christians.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, 16.2 million Christians have had to leave their homes, including a large number of Nigerians. For Nigerians, this often means living like displaced people in Chad.
To change this, it is necessary to couple hope with solutions that address the underlying causes of instability. At World Relief, we work to meet both the tangible and spiritual needs of a population, in partnership with the church. This is the only solution in a multi-religious space. To build social cohesion, trust, shared responsibility and sustainable peacebuilding, neither the tangible nor the intangible can be ignored.
I WAS KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM AND SURVIVED. NO THANKS TO THE SILENCE OF THE WEST
Unfortunately for an international audience that wants clean lines and quick solutions, this type of work doesn’t happen overnight. Our sisters and brothers in Christ deserve our sustained attention and support, whether they are in the Gaza Strip or Syria or the Sahel.
In the short term, we must provide access to additional humanitarian resources on the ground to alleviate some of the drivers of conflict. High-level conversations to address religious tensions will be facilitated when those factors that are at a lower level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are first addressed.
Jihadist organizations, including Boko Haram, have carried out religious killings for the past 16 years, massacring 125,009 Christians and more than 60,000 “liberal” Muslims who do not share the extremist views of the dominant groups.
I appreciate the attention that US authorities have paid to the situation in recent months; Among resolutions taken in the House in March, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruzintroducing legislation and West Virginia Republican Rep. Riley Moore’s appeal to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this fall. The three lawyers redesignate Nigeria as a country of particular concern and we are starting to see a much-needed surge.
CLICK HERE TO REVIEW MORE FROM FOX NEWS
Additionally, the United States offers a unique location to provide assistance to refugees who have a credible fear of persecution in the United States refugee resettlement program. in president donald trumpDuring his first term, he was the first president to expressly name religious persecution as being of key importance to people served through the program.
Due to the government shutdown, we are still anticipating the Presidential Determination for Refugee Resettlement for fiscal year 2026, and I urge the president to consider populations such as those Christians in Nigeria whose safety could be guaranteed through a resettlement quota of at least the 50,000 he set as a limit in 2017.
Girls from a Chibok school freed from Boko Haram captivity in Abuja, Nigeria, Sunday, May 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
It’s up to us as American consumers media and information Seek news from our brothers in Christ around the world. The newsrooms respond to demand; As we turn our attention abroad, coverage will improve. Now more than ever we need transparent eyes and ears in situations where evil works in darkness, and the American church is uniquely positioned to leverage its considerable influence to bring light to the darkness.
Finally, let us not stop lamenting and asking Christ on behalf of our sisters and brothers around the world. As a global church, we participate in the suffering of christ while we participate in the suffering of others. He is with those who suffer and his attention does not waver.
