Tonight (8 June 2022), after 6 pm, presumably late in the evening, the European Parliament will discuss the genocide of Christians taking place in Nigeria, which did not start today. A timid step, but decisive. For if you do not begin, you will never get anywhere, let alone far. The silence surrounding the Nigerian carnage is one of the many stains on the conscience of international politics; therefore, today’s first step should be welcomed. Of course, there is no resolution on the table, and therefore nothing will actually happen. Still, even this is better than nothing.
Nigeria, in fact, deserves this. This is said in no uncertain terms by Slovak politician Ján Figeľ, former Special Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief Outside the European Union, at the center of a let’s say curious controversy that iFamNews gladly covered, and even launched a petition asking the European Commission to renew his mandate when the European Commission was trying its best to look the other way.
“Nigeria,” Figeľ tells me, “is the largest country in Africa and therefore its many painful problems must not be underestimated or ignored by the international community. The bloody and repeated attacks on Christian communities by Islamist militants must be stopped and the crimes committed must be prosecuted by state authorities. President Muhammadu Buhari and the government of Nigeria must show that they are truly striving for the achievement of justice for all. Indeed, justice is crucial for the dignity of people, for peace, for stability and for the sustainable development of this important country.”
The Nigerian problem is huge, and the costly price is being paid by Christians. There are many reasons why Christians are affected, and they are economic and political in nature. But a particularly obnoxious thing is happening in Nigeria: the Christian religion of the victims is used as an excuse to conceal economic and political aims, and at the same time the economic and political problems are such as they are precisely because of religious reasons. This is what iFamNews has been trying to say since Monday, when Figeľ asserted that in Nigeria Christianity, the culture derived from it, and the civilization born from it are an instrument of true emancipation and genuine progress in the region, and they stand in the face of forces that want to hinder this precisely because they know this is true; forces that massacre Christians: guilty religiously and culturally.
These revolving doors are bending whole regions and peoples, and making the issue of “religious freedom” once again the prime necessity: religious freedom itself as a primary value and religious freedom as a necessary bedrock for good politics.
Figeľ, who has long touched this grievous reality with his own hand, further explains to me, “The continued persecution of religious minorities and people of faith around the world confirms the urgency of protecting and promoting freedom of belief internationally. Because, unfortunately, millions of people are deprived of this right. Therefore, the European Union must without delay restore the office of the Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union.”
Just what Figeľ has been calling for, as has iFamNews, and they both still do. Figeľ or others of his moral and professional stature. Indeed, the problem remains only one: those persecuted for the faith, persecuted people who have no protection.