AMERICA IS FIGHTING FOR THE RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS OF ALL FAITHS, NOT ONLY FOR CHRISTIANITY!
By Danjuma Byang, PhD.
Many people have a narrow-minded view of why America designates a nation as a country of particular concern (CPC). They think that America, and particularly President Donald Trump, is out to fight against Islam in preference to Christianity, his own faith. This view has been enlivened by America’s recent inclusion of Nigeria as a CPC earlier this month. But how true is this assertion?
Nigeria is the only one of 13 nations designated as a CPC by America. The other nations are: Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Each of these nations is designated as CPC for being “responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 (H.R. 2431) and its amendment of 1999 (Public Law 106-55). The term ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom’ means systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, including violations such as:
a) Torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment;
b) Prolonged detention without charges;
c) Causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction or clandestine detention of those persons; or
d) Other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons. Nations so designated are subject to further actions, including economic sanctions, by the United States” (AI-generated information)
It should be of interest that each nation is designated for violations of specific religious freedoms. For example, China is designated CPC for genocide and persecution of Uyghur Muslims, among other minority faiths! Also, Russia is on the CPC list for violating the religious freedoms of the Crimean Tatars, a group of Sunni Muslims with Turkish descent! And Burma is on the list for harassing the Rohingya Muslims among them! There are others, but these suffice for the point I am making!
It must be emphatically noted that America has been fighting for the religious freedoms of Muslims also!
Why then did America mention Christian genocide in the case of Nigeria? Because the stated raison d’etre for the existence of Boko Haram is to wrest from Nigeria every vestige of Christianity and other Western influences. In a video clip released by the then leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, in 2012, he said, “Everyone has seen why we are fighting with them. We hardly touch anybody except Christians, security personnel, and those who betrayed us…You Christians should know that Jesus is a servant and prophet of God. He is not the Son of God. The religion of Christianity you are practicing is not a religion of God; it is paganism. God frowns at it…” (quoted by Jonathan Ishaku in The Road to Mogadishu: How Jihadist Terrorism Tears Nigeria Apart).
Boko Haram then went ahead to kill, and/or abduct Christian men, women, and children, and rape Christian women and girls and burn churches in almost every state in Northern Nigeria. (After six years of diligent study and research, I wrote my Doctoral dissertation on this and submitted it to the Jos ECWA Theological Studies (JETS). So, I know what I am talking about!
If there are many Muslims killed also it is to a revenge on those Muslims who did not sympathise with their Jihadist ideology. Also, it is the Fulani Muslims killing Hausa Muslims to extend their grip on power over Hausaland. These are facts that President Trump and the American government are fully abreast with!
So then, that there is genocide in Nigeria cannot be denied. And that is why America designated Nigeria as CPC and is coming to intervene in the genocide.
In conclusion, it is very wrong to claim that by designating Nigeria as CPC for Christian genocide, America is selecting only Christianity to fight for, and thereby fight against Islam. It is doing so because the case of Nigeria specifically demands it. But in other contexts, America fights for the freedoms of all religions, including Islam! We thank God for America, especially under the leadership of President Donald Trump!
Thanks for your time!
Dr. Byang is a former editor of Today’s Challenge magazine
20
Post Comment