S.A. McCarthy
As violence against Nigerian Christians continues to surge, one American senator is pressing Nigerian officials to protect their people from persecution. “Officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) charged in a social media post Friday, highlighting news of 5,000 Nigerians fleeing their home country for neighboring Cameroon in the face of attacks by jihadist militia Boko Haram. “It’s time to hold those responsible accountable,” Cruz said, touting new legislation. “My Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act would target these officials with powerful sanctions and other tools.”
Cruz’s legislation would require the secretary of State to identify Nigerian government officials who have “promoted, enacted, or maintained Nigerian blasphemy laws, including through public advocacy, legislative action, or executive enforcement directives” or “tolerated violence by non-state actors invoking religious justifications to commit acts of violence.” The legislation would also designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act and impose sanctions on the country and its government officials.
“Nigeria’s federal government and a dozen state governments enforce blasphemy laws in their criminal and sharia codes, and they ignore or facilitate mob violence targeting Christians,” Cruz explained to Fox News this week. “Since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been destroyed,” Cruz recounted. “These atrocities are directly linked to the policies of Nigerian federal and state officials. They are the result of decisions made by specific people, in specific places, at specific times — and it says a great deal about who is lashing out now that a light is being shone on these issues,” he continued. “The United States knows who those people are, and I intend to hold them accountable.”
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