{"id":123098,"date":"2025-10-21T21:09:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=123098"},"modified":"2025-10-21T21:09:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:09:37","slug":"us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Senior Adviser to former United States President Donald Trump on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, has said that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS have killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, dismissing claims of religious persecution as inaccurate and misleading.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Boulos made the remarks in a video shared by a Nigerian Television on X ( formerly Twitter) on Friday, responding to comments by some U.S. lawmakers alleging that Christians were being systematically targeted in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAny incident, any loss of life is absolutely unfortunate. Those who know the terrain well know that terrorism has no colour, no religion and no tribe,\u201d Boulos said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cPeople of all religions and all tribes are dying as a result of terrorist acts. We even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians. So people are suffering from all sorts of backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted about one group or the other.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He stressed that the violence ravaging parts of the country was not religiously motivated but rather a symptom of broader insecurity affecting all Nigerians.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking on farmer\u2013herder clashes in the Middle Belt, Boulos said the confrontations were often misrepresented as religious conflicts.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere are other incidents that happen to be in the Middle Belt, for example, where farmers are located. Most of these farmers happen to be Christian, and some herdsmen are going through, and they have these incidents. But it\u2019s not something that we can say is specifically targeted about this specific group,\u201d he explained.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Boulos commended the Tinubu administration for ramping up efforts to stabilize volatile regions, saying progress was already noticeable.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe Nigerian government and President Tinubu\u2019s administration have recently taken additional measures and put more resources in those areas. We\u2019ve seen some improvements in recent weeks. We appreciate those measures and definitely look forward to more,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also lauded Nigeria\u2019s long-standing tradition of religious coexistence, describing its diversity as a strength rather than a weakness.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNigeria is a country in which all sorts of religious groups and other groups, ethnic and tribal, are living together in harmony for centuries. The population is split 50-50 between Christians and Muslims, so this has never been a serious religious issue and should not be,\u201d Boulos said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He called for stronger collaboration between Nigeria and the United States in combating terrorism and promoting peace.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Boulos\u2019s comments come amid fresh debates in Washington, where some U.S. politicians are pushing for Nigeria to be reclassified as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) over alleged violations of religious freedom.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">U.S. Senator Ted Cruz recently accused Nigerian officials of \u201cignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists,\u201d introducing the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act to sanction those deemed responsible.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Similarly, Congressman Riley Moore of West Virginia urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to redesignate Nigeria as a CPC and suspend arms sales until the Nigerian government demonstrates stronger protection for Christian communities.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Nigeria was first designated a CPC in 2020 under the Trump administration but was removed from the list by President Joe Biden in 2021, a decision that drew backlash from conservative and religious freedom advocates.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi Senior Adviser to former United States President Donald Trump on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, has said that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi Senior Adviser to former United States President Donald Trump on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, has said that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\"},\"wordCount\":545,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp\",\"width\":1050,\"height\":656},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News","og_description":"By Lizzy Chirkpi Senior Adviser to former United States President Donald Trump on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, has said that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1050,"height":656,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria","datePublished":"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/"},"wordCount":545,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/","name":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp","datePublished":"2025-10-21T20:09:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/trump.webp","width":1050,"height":656},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/us-official-dismisses-claims-of-religious-persecution-in-nigeria\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"US Official Dismisses Claims of Religious Persecution in Nigeria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123100,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123098\/revisions\/123100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}