Sean Nelson, legal counsel for the U.S.-based Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA that the USCIRF report “fails to explain the broader context of religiously motivated violence against Christians, where they are suffering thousands of deaths every year because of their faith.”
“The report is needlessly polarizing in an area that requires great sensitivity,” Nelson said.
“The international religious freedom community would benefit from an explanation as to how the report was produced and approved, and USCIRF should consider a retraction. It is vital that the international religious freedom community is able to come together to advocate for those in Nigeria who have been so regularly and grievously victimized.”
Nelson said the report appears to fault the Christian community for the marginalization of the Fulanis while failing to acknowledge the brutal persecution the Christians of Nigeria are facing, often at Fulani hands.
“The report rightly speaks against using an overly broad brush when discussing the Fulani Muslim community and militancy within it, but then proceeds to imply with false moral equivalency and little evidence that the broader Christian community is responsible for large portions of the violence,” he noted.
Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, called for USCIRF to prepare and release a report “giving the other side,” chronicling Nigerian Christian persecution.