§ In Nigeria, over the past 20 years, 100,000 Christians have been killed....Nigeria is becoming the "biggest killing ground of Christians in the world".
§ Nigeria, already the most populous African
country, could have a population of about 800 million people in the year 2100,
according to a study by The Lancet, and could become the
ninth-largest economy in the world.
§ How many could be saved if the media, the
chancelleries and international organizations had put pressure on the Nigerian
leadership to protect its Christians? Why has the West never linked trade,
diplomatic, military and political exchanges with Nigeria to protecting its
Christians?
§ US President Donald Trump, in 2018, raised the
issue with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. "We have had very serious
problems with Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria", Trump told
him. President Trump, however, is almost alone among Western leaders to raise
the issue. When his predecessor, President Barack Obama, met with Buhari, he
never talked about the murders of Christians.
|
In Nigeria, over the
past 20 years, 100,000 Christians have been killed. Nigeria is becoming the
"biggest killing ground of Christians in the world". US President
Donald Trump, in 2018, raised the issue with Nigeria's President Muhammadu
Buhari. "We have had very serious problems with Christians who are being
murdered in Nigeria", Trump told him. President Trump, however, is
almost alone among Western leaders to raise the issue. When his predecessor,
President Barack Obama, met with Buhari, he never talked about the murders of
Christians. Pictured: Trump and Buhari on April 30, 2018, in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) |
"Stop the killings", "Enough is enough",
"Our lives matter", said Nigerian
Christians and church leaders gathered in London on August 20 to demonstrate
against the massacre of Christians in their country. They sent British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson a letter accusing the
international media of "a conspiracy of silence".
At the same time, a report by three organizations -- the
International Organization for Peace Building and Social Justice, the
International Committee on Nigeria and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for
International Freedom of Religion or Belief -- disclosed that in
Nigeria, over the past 20 years, 100,000 Christians have been killed. Boko
Haram, Al Qaeda, Fulani herdsmen and other Islamist groups are responsible for
the deaths of more than 96,000 Christians in 21,000 separate attacks. According
to the report, 43,242 Christians were killed by Boko Haram, Islamic State and
Al Qaeda; 18,834 died in Fulani attacks and 34,233 from other armed groups.
Nigeria is becoming the
"biggest killing ground of Christians in the world".
"This thing is systematic," said Anglican
Archbishop Benjamin Argak Kwashi of Jos; "it is planned; it is
calculated.... their intention is to Islamize Nigeria".
The stakes are strategic and immense. Nigeria, already the most
populous African country, could have a population of about 800 million people in
the year 2100, according to a study by The Lancet, and could become
the ninth-largest economy in
the world. "If Islam overruns Nigeria, the rest of Africa might easily
fall prey to them", Bishop Hyacinth Egbebo said.
To read the reports on the massacres of Nigerian Christians, the
scene is always the same: a village with a few poor houses surrounded by open
fields. Jihadists appear in the middle of the night and attack house after
house. They break down doors, shout "Allahu akbar", murder the
elderly, rape and maim women and children, and kidnap for ransom as a "business." They
burn houses, schools and churches. "It is as if the lives of Christians no
longer matter", said Pastor Stephen
Baba Panya, president of the Evangelical Church Winning All.
"In Nigeria's northern and central belt states, thousands of
civilians have been killed in attacks led by Boko Haram, Islamist Fulani
herders and other extremist militias", wrote the Baroness
Caroline Cox. "Hundreds of churches have been burned to rubble. Entire
communities have been forced to abandon their homes and farmland". The
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law warned of the risk of
"Rwandan-style genocide".
Organizations that track the persecution of Christians have long
been denouncing what is taking place. In 2012, Open Doors USA was already pointing out the
risk of genocide in Nigeria. Eight years after that, how many Christian lives
have been lost? How many could be saved if the media, the chancelleries and
international organizations had put pressure on the Nigerian leadership to
protect its Christians? Why has the West never linked trade, diplomatic,
military and political exchanges with Nigeria to protecting its Christians?
US President Ronald Reagan linked talks with the Soviet Union to
a campaign to let
Russia's Jews leave the country. But even the Jews in the Soviet Union were not
experiencing the atrocities that the Christians in Nigeria are suffering every
day.
US President Donald Trump, in 2018, raised the issue with Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari. "We have had very serious problems with
Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria", Trump told him. President
Trump, however, is almost alone among Western leaders to raise the issue. When
his predecessor, President Barack Obama, met with Buhari, he
never talked about the murders of Christians.
President Trump should "appoint a special envoy for Nigeria
and the Lake Chad region to 'focus like a laser beam' on the attacks by Boko
Haram and other Islamic militants... to stop a genocide of Christians in the
region," urged former
Congressman Frank Wolf.
Six years ago, the kidnapping of 276 female students, mostly
Christian, by the Islamist group Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria, led to
international condemnation. #BringBackOurGirls trended
on Twitter -- not surprisingly with no effect on Buhari. The hashtag campaign
was brief.
Only one of those kidnapped Nigerian teens, Leah Sharibu, failed to
regain her freedom and therefore spent two years in Boko Haram captivity. Why?
Because she had refused to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. Her
mother joined a protest in
London, but no major European newspaper had time for her. "Out of fatigue
or self-shame, or both, we close our eyes", said the journalist
Franz-Olivier Giesbert.
"Does the life of Christians in the East, Africa or Asia
count? This is a question that we are entitled to ask ourselves when we see the
place that our dear media give to the killings and discrimination of which
Catholics or Protestants are the object on the planet: nothing or almost nothing
, a few fortunate exceptions (...) It is our tartuferie (hypocrisy)
that feeds the clash of civilizations".
Another exception was the French author Bernard-Henri Lévy. In a
long article, Lévy described his visit to Nigerian churches and villages burned
and destroyed by Islamic fundamentalists, while local priests and bishops
showed him the photographs of Christian women mutilated after they refused to
convert to Islam. Then a Fulani told him:
"This is our land, there are too many Christians here,
Christians are dogs and children of bitches. They are traitors because they
have converted to the White religion. When they all leave, Nigeria will finally
be free".
American journalist Kirsten Powers wrote:
"Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being
slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the
birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the
pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly
deafening."
Mainline US churches have embraced "virtue
signaling" about racism after the death of George Floyd, but no Christian
leaders have said "Black Christian Lives Matter" to raise awareness
about the massacre of Christians. As one bishop said, Western silence on the
persecution of Christians has been "sinister".
The "cultural genocide"
of Uyghurs by the Chinese regime has been denounced and is squarely on the
radar of our media, and the "Rohingya genocide"
in Myanmar ended up in the International Court of Justice in The Hague; German and European Union MPs
condemned it. However, on the genocide of 100,000 Christians in Africa's
largest country, the West has simply shrugged.
Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il
Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16458/black-christian-lives
