Nigeria has been identified as a major flashpoint in the growing global crisis of religious freedom, putting the country at risk of experiencing widespread Christian-Muslim violence, according to witnesses who testified before the US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee.
The warning is contained in written testimonies released ahead of the joint hearing of the committee, which is holding on Wednesday (today), with witnesses citing recurring killings, displacement and insecurity as indicators of an emerging broader religious conflict in Nigeria.
The hearing will be jointly convened by the House Subcommittee on Africa and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere to assess what US lawmakers describe as mounting threats to religious freedom worldwide. It is titled, ‘Defending Religious Freedom Around the World.’
Written testimonies by key witnesses were released on the committee’s website ahead of the session and are expected to be delivered when the hearing convenes.
Among those scheduled to testify are the former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback; Principal Advisor for Global Religious Freedom at the US State Department, Mark Walker; Grace Drexel, daughter of detained Chinese pastor Ezra Jin; and Dr Stephen Schneck, former chair of the US 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.
“The people of faith being targeted by this persecution are America’s greatest allies in the spread of freedom around the world. We should see and treat them as such,” he stated.
The ex-envoy identified religious freedom as a central fault line in global politics, warning that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes increasingly view faith communities as threats to state control.
“Religious freedom is now one of our primary weapons against the dark alliance gathered against us,” Brownback said in his prepared testimony.
Brownback singled out Nigeria as a major global flashpoint, describing the country as “the deadliest place on the planet to be a Christian.”
He warned that patterns of violence across the country suggest a deepening religious crisis with implications beyond Nigeria’s borders.
“Early warning signs of a Muslim-on-Christian war are brewing across Africa,” he wrote, adding that Nigeria sits at the centre of that danger.
The ex-ambassador also raised concerns about foreign involvement in Nigeria’s security landscape, stating that support from countries such as “China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia” could worsen instability if not carefully scrutinised.
Brownback cautioned that failure to act decisively could allow the violence to escalate into mass atrocities similar to those seen in Iraq.
In his own prepared testimony, Schneck described freedom of religion or belief as being in a “historic crisis” worldwide, driven by rising authoritarianism, religious nationalism and state failure.
“Freedom of religion or belief is in crisis in the contemporary world. Whether measured structurally in culture, institutions and laws, or in the sheer number of incidents, persecution is increasing across the globe,” Schneck wrote in his private capacity and not on behalf of the commission.
The ex-USIRF chair identified Nigeria, Syria and Sudan as countries where weak governance and widespread insecurity have created dangerous conditions for religious communities.
“Nigeria, Syria, and Sudan are current examples of such conditions threatening freedom of religion or belief.
