Unimaginable Suffering

Fanaticism. That is what most of the world has learned to despise. We see it in Iran, amongst the Basij and the IRGC. We see it in Lebanon among Hezbollah and certain members of the AMIL faction. We see it in Iraq among ISIS and the Shia backed Iraqi resistance; in Yemin, among the Houthis; in Gaza amongst members of Hamas; in Egypt among the Muslim Brotherhood and Ansar Beit al-Maqdis;  in Jordan among ISIS and Al Qaeda; in Afghanistan in its support of the Taliban, in Turkey in its embracement of Hamas; in Qatar which warmly embraces Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban.

That is why EMET had decided last Wednesday April 22^nd to devote a day in the Capitol to this riveting subject, simply to wake people up to the atrocities.

Boko Haram, a radical jihadist group, has been based out of Nigeria. Their objective has been “to purify Sunni Islam in northern Nigeria.” They have enslaved and tortured women and children and extorted local residents for vast sums of money, since the group’s founding by the late Mohammed Yousef in 2002.

And we have been seeing it for decades now all across the African continent, but most particularly in Nigeria. Nigerian Christians have been brutally massacred in the thousands by radical Jihadists just because of their Christian faith. They have been beaten, tortured, mass raped, treated as sex slaves, imprisoned and enslaved, and have faced every sort of degradation imaginable.

Charles Jacobs has been working for decades against the jihadists in Sudan. He has watched as women have been gang raped and slaughtered.

EMET has become engaged in this effort when Stephen Enada, who is the Executive President of the International Committee on Nigeria, first contacted us. He described what is going on in Nigeria as “five minutes to a five alarm fire.” He recalled how thousands of women are held in captivity by the Muslim jihadists, robbed of their childhoods and forced to work as sex slaves, and how these crimes should be prosecuted as crimes against humanity.

Former Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have probably done more than anyone else alive to focus attention on this issue.

Former Congressman Frank Wolf has made numerous trips to Nigeria, and he unabashedly stated that it was Congressman Chris Smith who brought this deplorable issue to his attention. During his testimony on April 5, 2025, Rep. Wolf stated, “tens of thousands of innocent Nigerians have been murdered in northern Nigeria, and Christians in farming communities continue to be killed and ethnically cleansed by the thousands right now. I have met with Nigerian Catholic and Protestant religious leaders and have seen reports that over 100 Catholic priests have been abducted and dozens murdered in recent years. Muslims who refuse to pay tribute to Jihadist and other armed groups perpetrating these crimes also face persecution. Millions have been displaced.

In the meantime, President Trump has rightfully designated Nigeria as a “county of particular concern” and Congressman Chris Smith has traveled to Nigeria and chaired religious hearings regarding their appalling treatment at least 18 times.

Chairman Brian Mast of the all-important House Foreign Affairs Committee stated, “The free world cannot stand by as Christians face mass murders and brutal assaults of the hands of the terrorist thugs and armed militias in Nigeria. The Nigerian government must do their part to eliminate the scourge of religious persecution plaguing their country.”

That is precisely why Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV), along with an impressive body of lawmakers first introduced The Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, HR 7457. It calls on the Secretary of State to keep the Senate, the House, and full committee members totally up to date in an annual report; and it asks for a determination on whether the Fulani ethnic militias constitute a terrorist organization.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is also a hero to the people of Nigeria. He stated on April 21^st  that “jihadists have killed 52,000 Christians in Nigeria since 2009.” His bill S 2747, “The Nigerian Religious Freedom and Accountability Act” would impose sanctions on Nigerian officials who facilitate religious enforcement or forced sharia law.

Says Senator Cruz, “The more we work together, the more we gather like this, the more we shine a light on the atrocities in Nigeria.” The Senator described how on March 29, 2026, Palm Sunday, 53 Nigerians were murdered in three separate killing sprees. As he said, “families were broken. Lives were cut short.” Senator Cruz spoke repeatedly about the failure to take meaningful action against the radical Muslims in Nigeria.

Leo Terrell has been a fearless fighter against antisemitism, he has led the fight for the Jewish people against antisemitism, and he has filed federal hate crime statements against religious based hatred. As Charles Jacobs said, “That is precisely why he is with us today…Leo Terrell understands that religious hatred knows no border.”

Pastor Dumisani Washington is the founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, IPSI. Pastor Washington has frequently used his pulpit to call out the slaughter of Nigerians and others. He spoke eloquently of the profound fusion of the black and Jewish consciousness. He revealed that Boko Haram was being suppressed by the State Department led by Hillary Clinton and then John Kerry. (Pastor Dmusaini is totally bipartisan.)  Pastor Dumisani stated “The Obama State Department knew what was going on with Boko Haram and the 2014 “Bring back our Girls” movement.” Pastor Dumisani also spoke about several large nations, particularly Turkey, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, that have aided and abetted these terrorist organizations that are attacking Christians. The girls have never been brought back. “As a matter of fact,” says Pastor Washington, “a few of them were sent back as suicide bombers.”

Professor Walid Phares is one our nation’s most forementioned experts on Europe and the Mideast. He has advised presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Donald Trump. Walid’s journey started as a young boy when he saw newspaper clippings of Nigerian persecution, which forged his life as a person of great moral consciousness. Professor Phares spoke of the partnership between the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood, and how the mainly Salafist jihadists movements are moving from northern Africa to southern Africa.

The forum was replete with a plethora of brilliant speakers including Dr. Richard Ikeibe, professor of journalism, The Reverend Tony Perkins, of The Family Research Council, The Reverend Mark Walker of the State Department Institute of Global Religious Freedom, Professor Bob Destro, Dr. Mohamed el-Sanousi of the Network for Religious Educators and Traditional Peacemakers,  The Nigerian politician Segun Sowumni, Award winning journalist and international news commentator, Yuval David, and the incredible speaker and witness, Mayor Mike Arnold. Mayor Arnold funds and runs schools for more than 600 Nigerian children who have been displaced in camps that the Nigerian government says “do not exist.” He is also the author of the Amazon best seller, “Epicenter: Nigeria, Radical Islam, and the War for Global Order.”

There were many, many riveting speakers, but perhaps the most riveting of them all was Mercy Maisamari who humbly spoke “as a woman who was not meant to survive”. She had dreams written in notebooks, and “a future she could almost touch”. She spoke about how the jihadists did not see her as a human being, “but as something to be owned. They killed us who could not pay ransom. They marched us away from everything we had ever known. For weeks in captivity, she was beaten by men who “called their cruelty holy.”

This, my friends, is what we are all up against. Many women are being held in these inhumane ways, as prisoners of conscience. This is, in Mercy’s beautiful words, “a crime against humanity.”