Open Doors’ research team, in Nigeria the “Hausa-Fulani commit ethnic cleansing on the Christian population”

Open Doors has recently launched a very important report on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Matchman News interviewed a member of Open Door’s research team (whose identity remains secret for security reasons).

Open Doors has recently launched a very important report on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Matchman News interviewed a member of Open Door’s research team (whose identity remains secret for security reasons).

1. Open Doors launched the new World Watch List edition – where Nigeria apparently improved, leaving the 10 most dangerous countries – and, after some weeks, issued the special report “Crushed but not Defeated”, focusing on Nigeria. This would suggest that the Nigerian Christians still suffer an extreme persecution. Why did Open Doors issue this particular report on Nigeria?
We have to look at the scores, not at the ranks. See the table available on The Analytical (password freedom). The table, on page 2 of the third compilation, shows that the score for last year and this year is the same. The reason that Nigeria does not score higher is that the southern part of the country has hardly any problem – there is a thriving Church that sends missionaries all over the world – while the northern part of the country (including the Middle Belt region) has enormous problems. Just to make it clear, in our methodology the definition of Christians (or Church) is very broad – see page 7 of the World Watch List methodology on the Analytical (password freedom).
2. The Report shows some links among the causes of Nigerian persecution: there is a deep connection between religion and ethnicity, such as for the Hausa-Fulani. It is something that breaks the communities: those who convert to a different religion “cannot” be seen anymore as community members. How can this situation change?
We have to understand that the problem is that Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen commit ethnic cleansing on the Christian population – the concept of ethnic cleansing includes removing others from your region for religious reasons. The Reports section of The Analytical (password freedom) gives the proof (see here, here and here).
So the issue is not about converts to Christianity from Islam alone. The Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen are against all Christians – they want to remove them from the territory.
To resolve the problem of converts, the Islamic blasphemy and apostasy laws have to be changed. There should be a sincere and serious commitment to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That is often problematic because in many cases Sharia law is put above this article 18.
Freedom of religion cannot stand alone and hence it is multidimensional. The modern legal conception of the multidimensionality of religious freedom can be derived directly from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was later incorporated under Article 18 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), though slightly modified.
It is important to bear in mind that the presentation of freedom of religion in Article 18 is much broader than how it is commonly understood. To remind the world about the rich tenor of the article, the UN Human Rights Committee published a general comment on Article 18, adopted by the Committee on 20 July 1993. The Swedish Mission Council (2010) produced a booklet entitled “What freedom of religion involves and when it can be limited”, which enumerates seven specific dimensions of religious freedom.

3. About media. It has said that Nigerian media ignore Christians’ hardships. Besides, some curious connections among Nigerian and some Western media don’t help to raise awareness through our public opinion. Is Open Doors planning some other actions to draw the West’s attention?
We have organized fact finding missions with Nigerian researchers into the situation in Nigeria. The Reports section of The Analytical gives the reports, as already mentioned, and also presents a report on Boko Haram violence against Christian women and children.
We plan to continue organizing fact finding missions about the situation in Nigeria, especially the Middle Belt region, where the Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen are active. The Nigerian team is ready but the problem is resources.
We do our best to spread these reports to key persons and/or institutions. But apart from that Open Doors has launched an advocacy campaign for Nigeria.

About the Open Doors’ research team, called “World Watch Research”
The WWR team consists of one communicator and five researchers, called “persecution analysts”, besides the director, all of them having university degrees. The director and two of the team have or are completing PhDs. Then, two well-educated part-timers gather data from the internet on violent incidents against Christians and/or churches in English and Arabic language fields.
The persecution analysts collaborate closely with researchers or experts operating at regional, national and subnational level. Some of these are Open Doors staff, others are external experts, who have different professional backgrounds and expertise in many fields (law, public policy, international development, international security, Christian ministry, leadership of Christian NGOs  or involvement in national and international human rights organizations dealing with freedom of religion or belief).