Sam Brownback participated in a panel event, titled “Without Religious Freedom, What’s Left?” where the topic of religious persecution was in the focus. He warned that there are troublesome events happening in Nigeria, where anti-Christian violence is on the rise. 

Speaking to Catholic News Agency last week, Brownback said he is concerned the situation in Nigeria will spread to nearby countries if nothing is done to crack down on religious persecution. 

“There’s a lot of people getting killed in Nigeria, and we’re afraid it is going to spread a great deal in that region,” he told CNA. “It is one that’s really popped up on my radar screens – in the last couple of years, but particularly this past year.”

Even though there has been a major U-turn in the Nigerian government’s approach to religious persecution recently, according to CNA, Sam Brownback added  that “I think we’ve got to prod the [Nigerian President Muhammadu] Buhari government more. They can do more. They’re not bringing these people to justice that are killing religious adherents. They don’t seem to have the sense of urgency to act”. 

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“We really think that they’ve got to act more,” he said, calling for dialogue between Muslims and Christians in the country, “really try to get them working together instead of killing each other.”

During the panel he mentioned the “crackdown on religious practice” in China. The “social credit” system developed in the past ten years is has been used to “track and punish” religious minorities, he added. 

Sam Brownback highlighted the efforts of the Trump-administration, which, according to him, is defending religious freedom “more than any administration has previously.”

“And we consider [religious freedom] a God-given human right, not one that’s given by governments,” he said.

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Photo: Gage Skidmore (Wikimedia Commons)