Over the last two decades, almost 120,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered by Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram – both armed, Muslim terrorist groups. Yet the Nigerian government seems impotent in dealing with the ongoing persecution. For the third year in a row, the State Department has failed to list Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” which would allow the U.S. to take limited action.
Jeff King of International Christian Concern tells AFN the State Department is playing politics.
“It would be so nice if the State Department would just say … it's the human lives [they] care about the most, regardless of the religion,” King tells AFN. “We're talking about [more than] 100,000 Christians murdered – and yet how does politics trump that? It's just maddening.
The public, he says, needs to be informed but isn’t hearing much – from either the press or the pulpit.
“It's such a hidden topic in terms of the press and even in the pulpits,” he laments, “because it's not out in the news. But if you go to Google, you'd be surprised – you will be dumbfounded on the number of atrocities going back, year after year after year. Every month there's massive attacks.”
King contends change will not come in the State Department's attitude unless pushback comes from Christians in America who understand a Christian in any country is a part of the body of Christ and action needs to be taken on their behalf.
AFN reported last week that Sam Brownback, a former U.S. senator and governor of Kansas, described the level of accountability the U.S. is applying to Nigeria for persecuting believers of Jesus Christ as “feckless.”
