[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
On Friday, October 31, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social the momentous announcement that he is taking action to end the ongoing massacre of Nigerian Christians at the hands of the ruthless terror group Boko Haram and other jihadists:
Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it.
He went on to say that “something must be done!” and declared that he has asked for an investigation and report on the crisis from Rep. Riley Moore and Chairman Tom Cole of the House Appropriations Committee. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries,” Trump continued. “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
The following day, Trump added this warning:
If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!
War Secretary Pete Hegseth chimed in on X:
Yes sir. The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.
Bravo. The literal genocide in Nigeria (as opposed to the fabricated Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians) being perpetrated by unchecked jihad is particularly egregious and barbaric. The worldwide holy war Islam is waging against Jews and Christians must be countered and crushed.
The administration of Joe Biden (or Kamala Harris, had she won in 2024) would never have taken action like Trump’s, because Democrats don’t care about the genocide of Christians, who are the most persecuted religious group in the world. This is partly because the Left is godless and partly because the slaughter of Christians cannot be politically weaponized to further the progressive agenda.
As my Freedom Center colleague Daniel Greenfield has noted, Trump’s announcement came shortly after the late Charlie Kirk, whose recent assassination continues to be celebrated and mocked by the demonic Left, retweeted a Freedom Center article drawing attention to the Nigerian genocide.
Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) too sounded the alarm:
Officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists. It’s time to hold those responsible accountable. My Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act would target these officials with powerful sanctions and other tools.
In a rare celebrity departure from Trump Derangement Syndrome, rap superstar Nicki Minaj took to her nearly 28 million followers on X to praise and thank Trump and his team for “taking seriously” the “mass slaughter”:
Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God.
No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other.
Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice.
Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.
Bravo. It’s sad to say that such an innocuous statement from someone in the entertainment arena requires a certain courage to stand apart from the progressive mob, who wouldn’t praise Trump if he personally cured cancer, and who are far more agitated about the chimera of “Islamophobia” than the actual butchery of Christians, whether in Africa or in the Western world itself.
But Nikki Minaj’s moment as the Unlikely Voice of Reason was short-lived. In response to a Muslim fan who tweeted to the rapper that “Faith should unite, not divide us,” Minaj replied, “Exactly & there are ‘extremists’ in every religion.”
Well, yes, that statement is true in the most generic sense, but let’s get real, Nikki: nowhere in the world are Christians slaughtering Muslims, much less in the name of Jesus Christ. But everywhere in the Muslim world where Christians are a minority, they face – at best –dhimmitude, and – at worst – brutal eradication.
In a statement to Newsweek, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, denied that any genocide is taking place in Nigeria: “For the avoidance of any doubt, and out of respect for all the victims and survivors around the world of this unique and appalling crime against humanity, let the record show that there is no genocide, now or ever, in Nigeria.” Let the record show that this statement is demonstrably false.
Nigeria’s Muslim President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also denies any persecution against Christians in his country, having recently described that charge as “a lie from the pit of hell.”
The “pit of hell” better describes what the Christians of Nigeria have been living in under Muslim persecution since at least the early 2000s. Ending the jihad is long overdue, and thanks to Donald Trump, the Christian community there may be getting a helping hand out of that pit.
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