The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) immediately criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken for once again leaving Nigeria off the State Department’s annual list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) for religious oppression.
In the 2023 edition of its World Watch List, religious freedom group Open Doors estimated that nearly 90 percent of the Christians killed for their faith last year were killed in Nigeria. The Christian aid group International Christian Concern (ICC) identified Nigeria as “the world’s most dangerous place to be a Christian in the world” in 2023.
President Joe Biden looks on as First Lady Jill Biden as reads “Twas The Night Before Christmas” during a holiday visit to patients and families at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, on December 22, 2023. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
USCIRF said there was “no justification” for leaving Nigeria and India off the list, especially since the State Department’s own “reporting and statements” suggest both countries should be on it.
The bipartisan USCIRF thought this omission was so egregious that its leaders, Chairman Abraham Cooper and Vice Chair Frederick A. Davie, called for a Congressional inquiry:
Days before Christmas, hundreds of Christians were killed in Nigeria, along with their Pastor. This is just the latest example of deadly violence against religious communities in Nigeria that even the State Department has condemned. The majority of Commissioners have traveled to Nigeria and noted the threats to freedom of religion or belief and the deadly implications to religious communities.
In India, in addition to perpetrating egregious religious freedom violations within its borders, the government has increased its transnational repression activities targeting religious minorities abroad and those advocating on their behalf.
USCIRF rejects the State Department’s decision to omit Nigeria and India as CPCs. We met with the State Department on many occasions to sound the alarm about these countries, but not all of our recommendations have been followed. We will not be deterred and will continue our role as a congressionally mandated watchdog to ensure the U.S. government prioritizes religious freedom as a key component of U.S. foreign policy.
The Commission also faulted the Biden State Department for failing to elevate Vietnam from the Special Watch List to Country of Particular Concern, again citing the State Department’s own reporting as evidence Vietnam should receive the highest classification for threatening religious freedom.
As of 2024, the CPC list includes Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
The comparably dire list of non-state Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) includes al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the former Nusra Front), the Houthis of Yemen, ISIS-Sahel, ISIS-West Africa, al-Qa’ida affiliate Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and the Taliban. The United States does not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, so it fits on the “entities” list. The Afghan Taliban is, however, absent from the State Department’s list of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
USCIRF sounded alarms about “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” religious persecution in Nigeria throughout 2023. Offenses included gangs of Muslim Fulani jihadists murdering and kidnapping Christian villagers, plus the ongoing depredations of Boko Haram, the ISIS-allied Islamist extremist gang.
Critics found it bizarre that Boko Haram made the list of Entities of Particular Concern, but Nigeria was not listed as a Country of Particular Concern. Unlike the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is a top-ranked oppressor of religious freedom but not the internationally-recognized government, in Nigeria the government is both oppressive and very indulgent of Islamist extremists who murder and enslave Christians.
“Despite statements calling for interfaith unity, the Nigerian government has generally failed to enact meaningful policy reforms and changes to address the drivers of violence impacting religious freedom,” USCIRF noted in December, urging the Biden administration to “hold the Nigerian government accountable.”
In June, USCIRF published an extensive report on “Ethnonationalism and Religious Freedom in Nigeria,” arguing that the former threatens to crush the latter.
“Ethnonationalist fighters in Nigeria have politicized religion and attacked civilians based on ethnoreligious identity. These fighters commit some of the most egregious atrocities and human rights violations of any actors in the country,” the Commission warned.
USCIRF, and the State Department, are also highly critical of Nigeria’s Islamic blasphemy laws, which have put several violators in jail for decades. In May, USCIRF called for the release of “religious prisoners of conscience” Mubarak Bala and Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, both of whom have been imprisoned on blasphemy charges for over three years.
Bala is an atheist arrested in 2020 for writing a Facebook post that allegedly insulted Islam’s Muhammad by denying the existence of an afterlife. He has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for that, plus other “blasphemous” Facebook posts.
Sharif-Aminu is a Muslim musician arrested for audio recordings in which he praised an imam from his Sufi Muslim order “to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad.” His house was burned down by an angry mob before the police arrested him.
Religious freedom advocacy group ADF International, which joined USCIRF in demanding a Congressional investigation of the Biden State Department’s refusal to designate Nigeria as a CPC, noted that blasphemy laws are a “significant driver of social tensions” and often ignite “brutal mob violence.”
“The United States should increase pressure on Nigeria for the blatant violations of religious freedom occurring in the country. More Christians are being killed in Nigeria for their faith than in all other countries combined,” noted ADF International legal counsel Sean Nelson.
The Biden administration suddenly pulled Nigeria off the CPC list in 2021 and has turned down every chance to restore it, a determination critics find baffling. In India’s case, the geopolitical considerations are more obvious, as India is a vital strategic American partner that also maintains friendly relations with Russia.
The “transnational repression activities” of India mentioned by USCIRF would most prominently include the murder of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil last year, and a thwarted plot to kill another one in New York.
USCIRF called these incidents “a severe escalation of India’s efforts to silence religious minorities and human rights defenders.”
“Within its own borders, Indian authorities have repeatedly used draconian legislation like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and anti-conversion laws to systematically crack down on religious minorities, journalists, and activists. Extending this repression to target religious minorities from India living abroad, including intimidation tactics against journalists, is especially dangerous and cannot be ignored,” USCIRF Commissioner David Curry said in December.
