U.S. blocks Christian
governor from Nigeria
peace talks
State Department demanding
'security background checks'
The United States Institute for Peace recently brought together the
governors of Nigeria’s
mostly Muslim northern states for a conference in the U.S., but the State Department blocked the visa of the region’s only Christian
governor, an ordained minister, citing “administrative” problems.
The visa of Plateau State Gov.
Jonah David Jang, has been held up by the Obama administration for more than a
year, according to Ann Buwalda of the Jubilee Project, which focuses on Nigerian human rights.
Of the 19 states northern states,
12 have implemented Islamic law, or Shariah, noted Buwalda.
Jang’s visa has been tied up in
security background checks described as “administrative processing” since July
2012,” she said.
“This is despite the fact that he
has never violated the terms of his visa,” Buwalda said.
The USIP confirmed that all 19
northern governors were invited, but the organization did not respond to
requests for comments on holding the talks without the region’s only Christian
governor.
Emmanuel Ogebe, a human rights
lawyer and counsel for the U.S. Nigeria law group, said the Christian
governor’s “visa problems” are because of bias in the U.S.
government.
“The U.S. insists that Muslims are the
primary victims of Boko Haram. It also claims that Christians discriminate
against Muslims in Plateau, which is one of the few Christian majority states
in the north. After the [governor] told them that they were ignoring the 12
Shariah states who institutionalized persecution … he suddenly developed visa
problems,” he said.
While the State Department
confirmed that the USIP conference took place, the federal bureaucracy there
had no comment regarding Jang’s visa issues, citing confidentiality rules.
Buwalda said it’s not unusual for
the U.S. government to
exclude Christians in Nigeria
discussions and meetings.
“My personal observation and view
is that some staff within the [State Department] have an unbalanced perception
that somehow raising the persecution of Christians minimizes the persecution of
Muslims or even favors Christians over Muslims,” she said.
Buwalda said that in the State
Department’s “current mandate to limit reporting to ‘trends,’ a distortion
results in that the ongoing violence against Christians is underreported or not
reported because it is not a new trend.”
“Another contributing factor is
the reporting efforts by some groups, including Western human rights reporting
groups, to report only on acts of violence against Muslim communities often
based on anecdotal information while whitewashing or ignoring the acts of
violence perpetrated on the Christian minority community,” she said.
She said she’s found “in meetings
that there is often a shallow or a distorted understanding of the dynamics on
the ground relying on sources of information which are dubious and unreliable.”
“It is our goal to provide
accurate and factual reporting which truthfully describes acts of violence, the
religious identity of the victims, and root causes which does not shy away from
referencing the declarations of the persecutors as to why they are carrying out
the acts of violence.”
Center for Security Policy Senior
Fellow Clare Lopez said that based on the administration’s actions regarding
Islamic issues, exclusion of the Christian governor is not a surprise.
“Remember how long it took for the
State Department to add Boko Haram to the Foreign Terrorism Organizations list?
This is despite evidence of its relationships with al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb and al-Shabaab,” Lopez said.
She said the State Department “is
steadfastly refusing to admit, even now, that Boko Haram’s rampages against
Christian communities in Nigeria
have anything whatsoever to do with Islam.”
Lopez said the Obama
administration effectively is complicit with Islamic law.
“This [administration] knowingly
and deliberately has subordinated its decision-making to the Islamic jihad and
Shariah narrative,” she said. “We know that all training that would educate DoS
(DHS, DoD, DoJ, etc.) officials and employees on down to local law enforcement
about the threat from Islamic jihad and Shariah systematically has been purged
from the … curriculum. Trainers and instructors who formerly taught such
subjects are blacklisted,” Lopez said.
Lopez emphasized that the
administration’s actions are deliberate and an abrogation of members’ oaths of
office, adding: “It may well be prosecutable – material support to terrorism as
well as aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war.”
The White House has not responded
to WND’s request for comment.
Buwalda said the U.S. government
blames the Christians for the violence.
“In fact, unrelated to the
governor’s visa issue, three of our Nigerian colleagues including a former
congresswoman from Plateau State and I participated in a Department of State
meeting with high level officials last year in May or June [who] very bluntly
declared how the governor of Plateau State was to blame for unrest in his
state,” Buwalda said.
“I was shocked at the hostility.”
Ogebe wrote in his blog, “Justice
for Jos,” that Boko Haram has made clear that it will not attack mosques.
“Boko Haram has gone out of its
way to emphasize that it does not attack Islamic places of worship. However it
does assassinate Muslim critics after worship when they are vulnerable. Boko
Haram’s first attack inside a mosque in the five-year insurgency occurred in
2013. Their targets were Muslims who had cooperated with the authorities
against the terrorists. It was not a random attack on Christians as has been
the case,” Ogebe wrote.
Ogebe said there are specific
circumstances for Boko Haram to attack a Muslim.
“Recently, Boko Haram acknowledged
killing a Muslim cleric who had been critical of them. It is likely the terrorists’
first claim of responsibility for the killing of a fellow Muslim,” Ogebe said.
“The question remains – why is the U.S. downplaying or denying the
attacks against Christians?”
To support the claim, Ogebe cites
the executive summary of the State Department Human Rights report, which
referenced Boko Haram violence but neglected to mention the victims’ religious
identity, except for the reference to a mosque attack.
“Throughout much of the country,
Boko Haram perpetrated numerous killings and attacks, often directly targeting
civilians,” he wrote.
“During the year, the sect, which
recruited child soldiers, claimed responsibility for coordinated assaults on
social and transportation hubs in Kano; an
attack on the town of Baga; multiple attacks on
schools and mosques; an attack on the town of Benesheik; and the killing of government,
religious, and traditional figures.”
On Feb. 17, the terrorist group
Ansaru, believed to be a Boko Haram faction, kidnapped seven foreigners in Bauchi State,
he pointed out.
Ogebe noted the other attacks
listed were all against Christian targets.
Nigeria
Nigeria
was a Davis Manafort client.
Note: Viktor F.
Yanukovich is a Davis Manafort client,
and was the president of the Ukraine.
Richard H. Davis
is a managing director at Davis Manafort, and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, and the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
William B.
Taylor Jr. was a U.S.
ambassador for the Ukraine, a special coordinator for Middle East transition for the U.S. Department of State, and the SVP for the United States Institute of Peace.
Thomas R.
Pickering was the under secretary for the U.S. Department of State, a U.S. ambassador for Nigeria, is a distinguished fellow at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank).
Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala was the minister of finance for Nigeria,
and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz
Kerry, and the secretary at the U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration.
Strobe
Talbott is the president of the Brookings Institution (think tank), was
the deputy secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, and Eric S.
Edelman was his chief of staff.
Eric S. Edelman
was Strobe Talbott’s chief of staff,
the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of Defense, a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and a director
at the United States Institute of Peace.
Chuck
Hagel is the secretary at the U.S.
Department of Defense for the Barack
Obama administration, and was the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank).
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), and the Human Rights Watch.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch.
Robin Renee
Sanders is a director at the Human
Rights Watch, and was a U.S.
ambassador for Nigeria.
Stephen J. Hadley
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States (think tank), a senior adviser for international affairs,
director for the United States Institute
of Peace, and was the under secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense.
George E. Moose
is a director at the Atlantic Council of
the United States
(think tank), and the vice chairman for the United States Institute of Peace.
J.
Robinson West is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and the chairman for the United
States Institute of Peace.
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