Rap superstar Nicki Minaj recently thanked President Donald Trump for shedding light on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
‘Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday. ‘The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!’
Minaj is open about her Christian faith and said that the president’s statement made her ‘feel a deep sense of gratitude.’
‘Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other,’ Minaj wrote.
‘Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror [and] it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to the president [and] his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer,’ she added.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz thanked Minaj for ‘using your platform to speak out in defense of the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria.’
‘We cannot allow this to continue,’ Waltz added. ‘Every brother and sister of Christ must band together and say, ‘Enough!”
The situation for Christians in Nigeria has become dire as entire villages have been burned to the groups, worshippers have been murdered at Sunday services and thousands have been displaced by Islamist groups sweeping through the country.
‘Even being conservative, it’s probably 4,000 to 8,000 Christians killed annually,’ Mark Walker, Trump’s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital. ‘This has been going on for years — from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias — and the Nigerian government has to be much more proactive.’
Trump said he has directed Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the situation and report their findings to him.
The president also said that he would designate Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’ (CPC). According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in countries with that designation, the government has ‘engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ which is defined as ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.’ This comes from the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.
‘Nigeria is the most dangerous nation on Earth to follow Christ,’ the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement. ‘For simply practicing their faith, Christians are actively being kidnapped, attacked, and slaughtered. With President Trump announcing he will be redesignating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the United States is making clear in one resolute voice: religious persecution will not be tolerated. The scourge of anti-Christian violence and oppression of other religious minorities by radical Islamic terrorists is an affront to religious freedom. This is a critical step in mobilizing leadership and attention to confront evil extremism.’
The committee vowed that once the government shutdown is over, its members will ‘continue moving full-year appropriations across the finish line to uphold your priorities. We know you’ll be ready at your desk with a pen in hand.’
Fox News Digital reached out to Minaj’s representative for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
