US accuses Nigeria of violating religious freedom

The commission reported that incidents involving violent armed groups and criminal activity that affected religious freedom grew worse.

The commission provided examples, including “A Shari’a court executed Sheikh Kabara for blasphemy. Judges among others gave humanist leader Mubarak Bala a 24 year prison term for blasphemy and other offenses.

“In 2022, conditions for religious freedom in Nigeria remained poor, with both state and non-state actors committing particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” according to America.

“While some officials worked to address the causes of violations of religious freedom, others actively violated those rights, including by enforcing blasphemy laws, according to the report. Religious freedom-related criminal activity and violent armed group incidents got worse.

According to the statement’s addition, “rampant violence and atrocities across Nigeria continued to impact freedom of religion or belief, including militant Islamist violence; some forms of identity-based violence; mob violence; and criminal, political, and vigilante violence impacting worship.”

The United States noted that the federal government stepped up efforts to address violence that impinged on religious freedom, including by institutionalizing harsher punishments against offenders, enhancing military efforts to neutralize Islamist fighters in the North, and stepping up efforts to investigate and apprehend those responsible for the most heinous attacks.

The effectiveness of these efforts, however, remained in doubt, and in some areas, state and local officials failed to fully prosecute those who incited mob violence against alleged blasphemers.

Security and judicial reform initiatives aimed at discouraging and providing redress for religious violence “remain stagnant, with such efforts largely absent from or peripheral to leading politicians’ policy priorities,” according to the report.

It continued, “In November, the U.S. Department of State failed to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in particularly severe violations of religious freedom, despite the country’s ongoing struggles with religious freedom.”

The Commission recommended that the United States government “Designate Nigeria as a CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act, and redesignate Boko Haram and ISWAP as ‘entities of particular concern,’ or EPCs, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by IRFA.”