For a week and until Thursday, November 20*, several Nights of Witnesses have allowed three Christians from countries where persecution is daily to testify to the French. Organized each year by the association Aid to the Church in Need (AED), this week aims to raise awareness of a reality that is often ignored. In its latest report on religious freedom, the ACN ranks Nigeria among the countries in which persecution is the most terrible: kidnappings, massacres, stalking and burning target Christian communities. It was on this occasion that Father Emmanuel Isa Saliu, a Nigerian Catholic priest, testified to the persecution suffered by Christians in Nigeria. JDNews met him.
The JDNews. Your father was Muslim. How did you discover the Christian faith?
Emmanuel Isa Saliu. I come from a village in northwest Nigeria, a predominantly Muslim region. At the time, the Sharia did not apply. We lived near a church where an Irish priest – the first missionary in the region – offered to look after the children and teach them to read and write. He played instruments… We were all happy to spend time with “the white gentleman”. My father finally entrusted me to him permanently before he left for another village. From that moment on, I had a new family. Later, I requested baptism and added to my birth name, Isa, a Christian name: Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. I continued my journey by becoming a brother in Christian schools myself, before leaving for Rome to be ordained a priest and train in interreligious dialogue. Now I am back in my country and teaching at the seminary in Kaduna. All this would never have been possible without this first contact with the Christian faith. Today, Islamic law reigns.
“ Young girls are kidnapped, Islamized and forced into marriage to make them sexual objects”
What fate now awaits apostates?
Under Sharia law, it is the death sentence. Part of the southwest of the country is spared and marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims can take place. But in the dozen states where the police of Islamic law dominate, the hisbaour every move is monitored. Apostates or not for that matter… During the Ramadanfor example, the fact that a Christian eats in front of a Muslim is considered a mistake, because it represents a “temptation”. Young girls are kidnapped, Islamized and forced into marriage to make them sexual objects. Priests are also kidnapped, to be exchanged for ransom or murdered.
However, Nigeria is officially a secular state, which also counts 45% Christians among its 206 million inhabitants…
When states decide to implement Sharia law, there is nothing the federal government can do to stop them, because that is the nature of Muslims. Let me explain: the Constitution authorizes religious freedom. Thus, when States want to make Islamic law reign, they believe that they are within their rights, because it is part of their religion which is Islam. They establish it by force. At the same time, letting things happen is a way for politicians to preserve their position of power.
Are politicians thus complicit in these barbarities?
Of course. Some terrorists Boko Haram are invited by Nigerian politicians themselves to Islamize the country. They come from neighboring countries: Mali, Senegal, Chad, Libya. We are talking about a “Nigeria’s Islamization program”. It’s all in the very meaning of the name “Boko Haram”, which literally means “against Western values”. The States where Christians live are therefore directly attacked.
However, Muslims are also killed by these terrorists…
Yes, because they are collateral victims of attacks against Christians or because they are not considered good enough Muslims. Christians are killed for the sole reason of their faith. This is why I dare to speak of genocide. When an entire house is burned in the middle of the night in order to bring out a family before executing them on the doorstep, and each household in a village suffers the same fate, I call it genocide. When I see, on videos, my comrades lying on the ground and slaughtered like animals by screaming men “Allah Akbar”I call it a genocide.
“ Our hope in God is eternal! »
Are you experiencing other forms of persecution?
Christians are discriminated against in their job searches or admissions to teaching careers.
How do you manage to maintain hope in such a climate?
Our hope in God is eternal! Christians who went through these trials saw their faith strengthened and remained faithful. We believe that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. In fact, vocations to the priesthood are not decreasing, on the contrary. This year, we welcome 280 seminarians to the major seminary. With more housing, we would have more!
Through your testimony, what message do you want to send to France and Europe?
We have not been able to resolve this conflict for twenty years. Over the years, our cries of distress to the government have fallen on deaf ears. I would like the UNITED STATES and Europe come to our aid to save the Christians of Nigeria.
*Thursday, November 20 at 8 p.m. at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.
