Religious Liberty Under Threat, at Home and Abroad – The American Spectator

The state of religious liberty across the globe is worsening, and Biden’s U.S. State Department is being accused of turning a blind eye to increasing persecution of Christians. In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health on Tuesday, religious liberty advocates sounded the alarm on the increase in persecution of Christians in regions such as Africa and the Middle East, and nations such as Nicaragua. 

On global religious liberty violations, committee chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said, “I am concerned that the U.S. State Department is not using all the tools provided to hold guilty parties accountable.” He continued, “I am convinced that there is more the United States can do to protect and promote the freedom of religion worldwide. Time and time again, violators of religious freedom are given a pass in the department’s Country of Particular Concern designations.” (READ MORE: ‘We Deal in Lead, Friend’: Nigerian Christians Are Right to Defend Themselves)

In Nigeria, Catholic priests are kidnapped and murdered and Catholic laity are harassed, brutalized, and slaughtered. Recent examples include Fr. Marcellus Nwaohuocha and Fr. Jeremiah Yakubu, who were kidnapped and tortured for months before being released. Priests Stanislaus Mbamara, Matthias Opara, and Jude Kingsley Maduka have also been abducted, within the past three months alone. Other priests, like Fr. Charles Onomhoale Igechi have simply been shot to death.

Catholic laity have also been targeted, predominantly by Muslims. An April attack on a village in Nigeria’s southern Kaduna State left 33 dead, including 14 children. A five-year-old boy was beheaded by the Islamists. A series of attacks during Holy Week this year resulted in over 100 deaths. Last year, a Pentecost Sunday attack on Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in Ondo, Nigeria left over 50 Catholics slain.

Fr. Remigius Ihyula of Nigeria’s Makurdi diocese spoke to the press of the brutalities Muslims visit upon Christians in the nation, saying, “They machete them, they riddle their bodies with bullets so that others will see and be afraid of even venturing to go close to where they are occupying.” He added, “Our brothers and sisters in America should know that this is taking place…. In this age and time, this is taking place; they should know that brothers and sisters every day are killed.”

Christians in other African nations, like Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo face similar threats on a regular basis.

Nicaragua’s assault on Christians — especially Catholics — has been well-documented. Marxist president Daniel Ortega has shut down Catholic universities and seminaries, frozen the bank accounts of Catholic dioceses, arrested and expelled priests, forced religious orders out of the country, shuttered Catholic radio stations, and — in perhaps his most egregious violation of religious liberty — raided the headquarters of the Matagalpa and arrested bishop Rolando Álvarez. When Álvarez refused to be deported along with about 200 other political prisoners, Ortega expedited the prelate’s trial, stripped him of his citizenship, and sentenced him nearly 30 years in prison on trumped-up charges of treason.

What was the U.S. State Department’s response? The bare minimum. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby called Ortega’s barbaric purge “unacceptable.” No report could be found stating whether the Nicaraguan dictator was left quaking in his boots.

Another major religious liberty violator is China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically suppressed and persecuted Christians and Uyghur Muslims for decades. Yet, while Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is derided and sanctioned the world over, China has received no stiff penalties for forced abortions and literal concentration camps. At a recent interfaith roundtable discussion in D.C., Family Research Council president Tony Perkins referred to China’s persecution of religious minorities and the Western world’s inaction as “the great wall of China’s deception.”

The State Department’s seeming unwillingness to respond to these atrocities should come as no surprise. The Biden administration is allowing a similar persecution here in the U.S. The FBI has explicitly targeted Catholics, raiding pro-life speaker Mark Houck’s home and prosecuting him for months and declaring attendees of the Tridentine Mass to be “racially-motivated violent extremists.” Since May of 2020, there have been almost 350 attacks on Catholic churches in the U.S. — with 180 of those taking place since the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked last year. Precious few of those church attacks have been prosecuted, and the draft-leaker remains unidentified. (READ MORE: FBI Agents in Catholic Churches)

It may be difficult to admit that America has reached such a stage, but under the Biden regime persecutors of Christians — at home and abroad — are practically given carte blanche. Every federal agency has been weaponized to silence conservatives and Christians and protect LGBT mobs and abortionists. Perhaps America should be placed on its own “Countries of Particular Concern” list.