U.S. Congress to Hear Testimony on Nigeria Violence

The United States Congress is scheduled to hold a hearing on allegations of Christian persecution in Nigeria, with witnesses testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The session, titled “Defending Religious Freedom Around the World”, will be jointly convened by the Subcommittee on Africa and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday.

Witnesses expected include former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, Grace Drexel, daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, and Dr Stephen F. Schneck, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In his prepared testimony, Brownback said, “Radical, militant Islam continues its purification efforts throughout the MENA region and beyond. Syria and Nigeria are key focus areas of opportunity for them in their quest for dominance, excluding all other faiths, even others within Islam.”

Brownback stated that “early warning signs of a Muslim-on-Christian war are brewing across Africa,” noting that “Nigeria is the deadliest place on the planet to be a Christian.”

“At the same time, the Nigerian government is seeking and receiving support from China, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia,” he added.

In his own submission, Schneck said that “failing or failed states are locations for the emergence or fostering of militarised groups—insurgent, ethnic, or religious—that can pose a threat to freedom of religion.”

The lack of updated designations of countries of concern and delays in the release of the US Department of State’s International Religious Freedom reports were other issues Schneck raised.

According to him, Nigeria is the only country on the designation list at the moment.

“This is very concerning at a time when countries like China and Iran are engaged in ever more repressive actions against people of faith,” Schneck added.