US Commission on International Religious Freedom

In Nigeria—Africa’s most populous country—violence and bloodshed continue to surge, week after week, month after month. Tragically, our Christian brothers and sisters are the primary targets of Islamist terrorism—murders, rapes, kidnapping, and never-ending threats of more.

Despite warring priorities within the Biden administration, Rashad Hussain’s mandate to elevate the plight of the persecuted is vital. Here are three ways that the new ambassador can quickly begin to make a difference.

While religious minorities go back and forth between being scapegoats and props, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has demonstrated that municipalities can play a key role in making their religious minority residents feel welcome as equal citizens and valued stakeholders.

The US has inexplicably removed Nigeria from its State Department list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). To some, that may sound like innocuous paperwork or an ambassadorial feel-good gesture. But, in fact, this de-listing of Nigeria’s CPC designation is an outrageous betrayal of an already brutalized Christian community.

The Autonomous Administration for North and East Syria (AANES) is seeking international recognition as a legitimate government, but currently it is campaigning the US to lift sanctions on its territory.

This month the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a new report that documents religious freedom violations occurring in North Korea.

It is time for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the global religious freedom advocacy community to highlight the egregious religious freedom violations that result from Turkey’s restrictions on using the Kurdish language as part of religious services.

With the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist ideals, Muslims, Christians, and Dalits have been targets of increasing persecution at the hands of both the state and local mobs.

Christians in Nigeria and Ethiopia face nothing short of genocide. Religious and ethnic carnage have become an all-too-familiar reality in both countries, with no end in sight.