Activity Update from the Religious Liberty Program

Happy New Year! Thanks to our generous supporters, IRD’s Religious Liberty Program is advancing with strength and determination in 2012. We are blessed to have prayer and advocacy partners in our work for the persecuted church around the world.

Let me tell you about two important events that we are co-sponsoring in the coming weeks. The first will call attention to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The second will celebrate the culture of one of Sudan’s marginalized and oppressed black African people groups – the Beja of eastern Sudan.

You will know of the terrible slaughter that took place in Nigeria as our Christian brothers and sisters celebrated the birth of the Savior at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church just outside the capital city of Abuja. Islamist Al Qaeda affiliates, Boko Haram, killed 45 and wounded 73 in a suicide bombing. And since Christmas Day, the attacks have kept coming. Boko Haram has demanded that all Christians leave Northern Nigeria or die.

On Monday, January 23, IRD’s Religious Liberty Program will co-sponsor a briefing on Nigeria by the Most Rev. Benjamin Kwashi, the Archbishop of Jos, on Capitol Hill. U.S. Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) is the honorary sponsor of this event. Along with our partners, including Justice for Jos, the Westminster Institute, Jubilee Campaign USA, and International Christian Concern, we will ensure that key Congressional staff members, journalists, and others hear the truth about what is happening in Nigeria. So often these horrific attacks on Christians are portrayed as “Christian/Muslim conflict” and both sides are portrayed as equally to blame. We will counter that moral equivalency with truth.

Then on Wednesday, February 1, we are planning an event on Capitol Hill to help introduce concerned citizens, as well as members of Congress and their staffs to a part of Sudan that has been overlooked. Like the black, African people in the north, south, west, and central – the Beja of the east are oppressed and persecuted by Khartoum’s Islamist regime. Their region, used to smuggle Iranian weapons to Hamas, is also strategic to global terrorism and jihad. We will celebrate Beja culture, with music and dance, and a commemoration of their struggle against the Islamist regime.

Watch IRD’s website for further information about these two events, and for full reports including lots of photos and video. (You may even see video of me dancing with the Beja!)