Violence by Islamic extremist groups such as Fulani militants, Boko Haram and Islamic State in West African Province increased during the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari, putting Nigeria at the epicenter of targeted violence against the church. The West African nation of 226 million is divided evenly between Christians and Muslims.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Taha A.-J. “purchased” and enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl named Reda and her mother. Taha’s wife was implicated as well. Taha and his wife held Reda and her mother as captives at their residence in Fallujah and forced them to practice Islam, work as slaves and deprived them of sufficient food.
Read More(OPINION) The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief is a day designated by the U.N. to combat intolerance, discrimination and violence against persons based on religion or belief. Over the recent years, we have witnessed several cases of the most egregious atrocities where religion or belief have been abused as a tool of discrimination and violence resulting in atrocities.
Read More(OPINION) On June 2, the U.S. State Department delivered its annual report to Congress on international religious freedom. The report identifies the numerous challenges to the right to freedom of religion or belief worldwide. Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized some of the main findings of this in-depth research into the situation around the world.
Read More(OPINION) In February 2022, lawyers for the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, a nongovernmental organization, applied for a judicial review of whether the Canadian government’s inaction amid the ongoing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China violates its international obligations.
Read More(OPINION) On Nov. 30, a court in Frankfurt, Germany, delivered a life sentence to a former Islamic State group fighter for genocide against the Yazidi minority — the first genocide conviction of an Islamic State group fighter in the world.
Read More(OPINION) April 24 has long been observed worldwide as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. In 2021, President Joe Biden chose to formally acknowledge that the systematic murder of more than a million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire was, in fact, a genocide.
Read More(OPINION) The Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., published a new report that identified Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the top countries at risk for new mass killings.
Read More(OPINION) The issue of genocide outside of the U.S. borders has been persisting for years in countries like Cambodia, Bosnia and Rowanda. There is a blatant disregard in the U.S. to understand and get involved, leading to very little preventative action before the genocide begins.
Read MoreThe Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan Congressional caucus, held a panel on Dec. 17 to discuss religiously-motivated violence in Nigeria. Hundreds of Christians and Shia Muslims have died or suffered other violence at the hands of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. The committee and panelists discussed what the U.S. should do to help in the future.
Read More(OPINION) Six years ago, members of the Daesh organization launched an attack against Yazidis in Iraq. They have yet to face legal consequences for these actions, and organizations are still attempting to capture the violence enacted against women and children.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Nigerian diaspora academics discussed the findings of a U.K. government report on July 6, concluding that several factors like water scarcity are affecting violence in Northern Nigeria, complicating a designation of genocide. Many acts of violence carried out by Boko Haram against Christians bear Quranic punishments for so-called infidels, and the Nigerian army is struggling to contain the violence.
Read More(OPINION) The Kutupalong refugee camps in Bangladesh are inhabited primarily by the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group that fled mass atrocities in Myanmar. Amid the spread of COVID-19, there is a growing fear that the refugees will now face further threat to their lives, as the camps are more densely populated than New York City.
Read More(OPINION) Thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been affected by a litany of mass atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram and Fulani herders. The Nigerian government should respond with comprehensive investigations and prosecutions, but it is clear that will not happen until we, as an international community, recognize the nature and severity of these crimes.
Read MoreThe Oxford Forum for International Development, the largest student-run International Development conference in Europe, recently hosted discussions on preventing and punishing genocide of religious minorities, among other topics.
Read More(OPINION) Acts of violence based on religion or belief are on the increase globally. This includes atrocities that amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. While such acts of violence affect all religious groups (especially minority religious groups), over the recent months, report after report has been raising the issues that relate to the persecution of Christians globally.
Read More(OPINION) A husband and wife are being tried for their roles in the campaign of atrocities that ISIS, also known as Daesh, committed. Their prosecutions should serve as models for other justice systems.
Read MoreA group of Yazidi journalists visited the Religion Unplugged offices in New York, hosted by the U.S. State Department, to talk about the current state of affairs in Iraq for the persecuted people group.
Read More(OPINION) The lack of swift justice for Yazidis sends the outrageous message that it is possible to get away with genocide.
Read MoreWe talked to human rights activist Dr. Widad Akreyi about the Yazidi community’s wait for justice on the international stage after the start of a genocide on Aug. 3, 2014. Thousands captured by Islamic State fighters remain missing.
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