The president of human rights watchdog group Open Doors has joined voices urging President Biden to redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” following the massacre of more than 50 Christians this weekend.
As Breitbart News reported, the Christians were gathered on Sunday in St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria, to celebrate Pentecost Mass when gunmen stormed the church and began shooting, killing at least 50 of the faithful, including women and young children.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Open Doors president David Curry noted that Nigeria comes in seventh place on his organization’s 2022 World Watch List, which ranks the countries that are most hostile to Christians.
More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in any country in the world, and in 2021 alone, 4,650 Christians were slain there for being believers in Jesus — more than one every two hours, Curry observed.
In December 2020, the U.S. State Department designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern for its egregious violations of religious freedom, but the Biden administration inexplicably reversed that decision in 2021 despite there being no let-up in violence against Christians.
As Breitbart News noted, four weeks ago a mob of Muslim students beat a Christian girl to death, after which they burned her body. The mob accused Deborah Samuel Yakubu of blasphemy after she shared the message, “Jesus Christ is the greatest. He helped me pass my exams” on a WhatsApp messaging group.
Human rights champion Nina Shea, noted Sunday that violence against Catholics and other Christians continues to escalate in Nigeria.
“This massacre in a church while filled with Sunday worshippers is an atrocity that we’ve repeatedly seen in northern Nigeria over the years. Those were the work of Islamist extremists,” Shea told Catholic News Agency (CNA).
It is clear that “large scale, war-like attacks on Catholics and other Christians are spreading in a system of impunity,” Shea added. “The Buhari government has allowed this [to] continue unabated and fails to protect Nigeria’s churches. This governmental passivity is being seen as a green light for extremists to target Christians.”
In Tuesday’s op-ed, David Curry insists that the time is ripe to send a message that the United States is committed to defending religious freedom around the world.
“Mr. Biden has the opportunity to send a clear signal that the U.S. won’t stand by as the innocent faithful are persecuted. He should make the redesignation and enforce sanctions without delay,” Curry declared in relation to Nigeria.
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