{"id":2742,"date":"2025-11-24T18:30:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=2742"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:30:19","slug":"nigeria-singer-nicki-minaj-defends-religious-freedom-amid-backdrop-of-christian-persecution-at-un-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=2742","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: Singer Nicki Minaj defends religious freedom amid backdrop of Christian persecution at UN event"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nicky Minaj<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Singer Nicki Minaj defended religious freedom advocacy as an effort aimed at \u201cuniting humanity\u201d in remarks at an event profiling the threats to Christians in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Minaj gave the keynote address on Tuesday, 18 November at an event<\/a>\u00a0hosted by the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City, titled \u201cCombating Religious Violence and the Killing of Christians in Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic has taken me around the globe,\u201d she said. \u201cI have seen how people, no matter their language, culture or religion, come alive when they hear a song that touches their soul. Religious freedom means we all can sing our faith regardless of who we are, where we live and what we believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, faith is under attack in way too many places,\u201d she lamented, detailing how, \u201cIn Nigeria, Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChurches have been burned, families have been torn apart, and entire communities live in fear constantly, simply because of how they pray. Sadly, this problem is not only a growing problem in Nigeria but also in so many other countries across the world, and it demands urgent action,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

During her speech, Minaj also pushed back on the idea that raising awareness about the plight of Christians in Nigeria amounts to making a political statement: \u201cProtecting Christians in Nigeria is not about taking sides or dividing people. It is about uniting humanity. Nigeria is a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions and lots of beautiful barbz,\u201d a word that refers to Minaj\u2019s fan base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about standing up in the face of injustice. It\u2019s about what I\u2019ve always stood for my entire career, and I will continue to stand for that. For the rest of my life, I will care if anyone anywhere is being persecuted for their beliefs,\u201d she vowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen one\u2019s church, mosque or place of worship is destroyed, everyone\u2019s heart should break just a little bit, and the foundation of the United Nations, with its core mandate to ensure peace and security, should shake,\u201d Minaj proclaimed.<\/p>\n

Minaj\u2019s appearance at the U.N. comes just over two weeks after she\u00a0responded<\/a>\u00a0to President Donald Trump\u2019s Truth Social post designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for tolerating egregious violations of religious freedom by sharing a screenshot of the post on her X account, accompanied by the\u00a0caption<\/a>, \u201cReading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her X post continued: \u201cNo group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don\u2019t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other. Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it\u2019s dangerous to pretend we don\u2019t notice. Thank you to the President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let\u2019s remember to lift them in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minaj\u2019s post also caught the attention of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, who\u00a0thanked<\/a>\u00a0her for using her \u201cplatform to speak out in defense of the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria\u201d and invited her to visit the U.S. Embassy to the U.N. The singer indicated in an\u00a0X post<\/a>\u00a0that she would be willing to take him up on his offer by responding to it directly: \u201cI\u2019d be honored. Thank you, Ambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to remarks from Minaj, the event featured testimony from the Rev. Gabriel Makan of Nigeria, who provided details about the ongoing persecution of Christians in his country. \u201cWe\u2019ve been experiencing this for a quarter of a century and it has been (an] extremely difficult experience for Christians,\u201d he said. \u201cWhole communities, villages have been extinct as a result of this violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust within the last three weeks, there have been multiple attacks in Plateau, in southern Kaduna, in Benue, with nine out of 15 attacks in Plateau state,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat simply shows that they believe that if they crush Plateau, they will crush Christianity not just in the North, but in all of West Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have mass graves literally in every community,” he added. “I\u2019ve been there. I\u2019ve been in the trenches. I\u2019ve been to these places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makan said the nation’s \u201cporous\u201d borders have also contributed to hostility toward Christians: \u201cWe have all sorts of people [migrating] into the country unchecked. We don\u2019t know where they\u2019re coming from but from the experience in [the] country, we know that a lot of them come with [plans to do] harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was <\/em><\/strong>culled<\/em><\/strong><\/a> from The Christian Post<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Singer Nicki Minaj defended religious freedom advocacy as an effort aimed at \u201cuniting humanity\u201d in remarks at an event profiling the threats to Christians in Nigeria. Minaj gave the keynote address on Tuesday, 18 November at an event\u00a0hosted by the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City, titled \u201cCombating Religious Violence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2743,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2742\/revisions\/2743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}