{"id":920,"date":"2020-07-02T08:04:40","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T07:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=920"},"modified":"2020-07-02T08:04:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T07:04:40","slug":"genocide-in-nigeria-calling-it-what-it-is-calling-for-it-to-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=920","title":{"rendered":"Genocide in Nigeria: Calling it What it Is, Calling for it to End"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Map of Nigeria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By John Stonestreet & Shane Morris<\/p>\n

In terms of lives lost, families separated, people imprisoned, and churches shut down, the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century has, so far, been the worst period of persecution against Christians in recorded history. Among the hottest of persecution hot-spots is Nigeria. According to religious freedom watchdog\u00a0Open Doors USA, Nigeria ranks<\/a>\u00a0at #12 worldwide for persecution of Christians.<\/p>\n

Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram is the known villain in Nigeria, and justifiably so. They are among the most brutal Islamist radical terror groups in the world. Just last week,\u00a0attacks in northeastern Nigeria<\/a>\u00a0by a Boko Haram splinter-group left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead. Back in January, the group\u00a0beheaded<\/a>\u00a0Nigerian pastor Lawan Andimi. Kidnapped from his village and forced to negotiate for his release with the government, Andimi wouldn\u2019t break.<\/p>\n

Instead,\u00a0he turned his hostage video into a stunning testimony<\/a>\u00a0to Christ.<\/p>\n

Still, as bad as Boko Haram is, much of the recent bloodshed in Nigeria has been perpetrated by militant Hausa-Fulani herdsmen. This largely Muslim ethnic group specializes in night raids on Christian villages in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt. \u00a0In a statement last June, Nigerian Christian leaders claimed that \u201cover 6,000 persons\u2014mostly children, women and the aged\u2014[have been] maimed and killed in night raids by armed Fulani herdsmen.\u201d They also described the \u201ccontinuous abduction of under-aged Christian girls by Muslim youths\u201d for forced marriages.<\/p>\n

According to Open Doors, these attacks are essentially \u201creligious cleansing,\u201d attempts \u201cto eradicate Christianity\u201d from the region. According to Nigerian Christians the more appropriate word is genocide.<\/p>\n

The term fits.\u00a0As I pointed out last March<\/a>, genocide has been carefully defined by the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and the word should not be tossed around carelessly. Genocide is action intended to destroy in whole or in part \u201ca national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, genocide is what Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsman are after in Nigeria. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, however, denies this. In a recently issued statement, he insisted that \u201cfalse allegations of persecution of Christians\u201d are \u201ca most misleading campaign.\u201d President Buhari, by the way, is the son of a Fulani chief.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there are international voices taking the plight of Nigerian Christians seriously. The U.K. Parliament released\u00a0a report<\/a>\u00a0putting the G-word front and center. Entitled, \u201cNigeria: Unfolding Genocide?\u201d the report issues a stirring call to Britain and the world \u201cto speak out on behalf of all the survivors and victims of violence,\u201d and \u201cto highlight the seriousness of the situation and the level of injustice that Nigerian Christians face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the report\u00a0in Forbes<\/a>\u00a0(and by the way, good for Forbes for covering this story<\/em>), one human rights activist called for \u201ccomprehensive investigations and prosecutions\u201d by bodies like the International Criminal Court. But, she insisted, the first step has to be that the world admits \u201cthe nature and severity of the atrocities. The crimes must be recognized for what they are and \u2018a most misleading campaign\u2019 is not that name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. must lead the way. Earlier this month, an executive order by President Trump made religious freedom a foreign policy and national security priority. It\u2019s now time to make act on those words. Nigerian Christians can\u2019t afford to wait.<\/p>\n

Besides calling this crisis what it is, a genocide, the U.S. could ease the process for asylum-seekers and immigrants from Nigeria. Nigeria was among the six countries President Trump\u00a0added to the travel and immigration ban<\/a>\u00a0in February and, currently, Nigerian refugees hoping to flee to the United States must prove their need by submitting\u00a0an exhaustive stack of paperwork<\/a>. Those in danger should not have to go to so much trouble to demonstrate what the world should already know.<\/p>\n

This article was culled from Christian Headlines<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By John Stonestreet & Shane Morris In terms of lives lost, families separated, people imprisoned, and churches shut down, the 21st\u00a0century has, so far, been the worst period of persecution against Christians in recorded history. Among the hottest of persecution hot-spots is Nigeria. According to religious freedom watchdog\u00a0Open Doors USA, Nigeria ranks\u00a0at #12 worldwide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-opinion"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920","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=920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}