- Middle East
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- Determining America's Role in the World
Donald Trump has turned his attention to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and threatened US action. While playing to his political base, his remarks bring into focus religious violence in Africa and elsewhere around the world. But this complex topic requires nuance and better understanding.
Anglican priest and journalist Giles Fraser, writing for The Guardian, lays out some reasons attacks on Christians often fly under the radar. First, he argues, subconsciously, the “secular and broadly progressive West thinks that Christianity had it coming,” given certain historical and contemporary behaviors (the Inquisitions, antisemitism, anti-abortion violence, and so forth). Secondly, he argues that Christians in the West who raise the alarm on trivial matters have “debased” the word “persecution.” And third, he asserts that there are those who fear discussing the persecution of Christians because it could be used as an alibi for Islamophobia.
Fraser correctly points out that these reasons are however not sufficient grounds for avoiding discussion of a very real, yet complicated, phenomenon: Yes, there are Islamist attacks on Christians.
Islamism can be defined as a radical movement requiring the integration of Islam into all sectors of life, turning it into a political ideology. It is important to understand Islamism by states and non-state actors, as both ultimately lead to the persecution of Christians and minority groups.
In Pakistan, blasphemy laws have contributed to a culture of intolerance leading to the persecution of Christians. In 2023, Al Jazeera reported on a Muslim mob burning down Christian churches and houses in eastern Pakistan after accusations of blasphemy against the Qur’an.
In Sri Lanka, the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 269 people in a coordinated Islamist attack implicating the National Thowheed Jamath, demonstrated the expansive reach of Islamist terrorism, likely with an Islamic State link.
Religious suppression in Saudi Arabia remains a concern despite the Saudi government’s shift from a staunch Wahhabi Islamist interpretation. The 2025 annual United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report notes that apostasy and blasphemy remain capital crimes, and while Christians are allowed to worship privately, there is a constitutional ban on non-Muslim public worship.
In Nigeria, a 2013 ICC report notes the alleged crimes of Boko Haram to include attacks against Christians, Christian churches, and primary schools.[1] Texas Senator Ted Cruz wrote on X in October that “since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed.” These figures have however been questioned.
For those looking to frame this as a simple narrative of Muslims versus Christians, the story would be convenient if it ended here. But the persecution of Christians is neither singular nor isolated; it forms part of a broader landscape of repression affecting numerous religious and cultural minorities.
The common pattern is that it is less about Christianity itself and more about Christians being among those not acting in accordance with the ideology of Islamist movements.
The 2021 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom factsheet notes that persecution of Christians by the Taliban in Afghanistan is not a uniquely Christian phenomenon but also affects other minorities, including Ahmadi Muslims, Bahá’ís and the Hazaras (a Shia ethnic minority) with many of these minorities unable to practice their faith publicly.
Similarly, in Pakistan, despite blasphemy laws contributing to a culture of intolerance, persecution is not exclusively reserved for Christians. A 2025 New York Times article argues that the blasphemy laws target vulnerable people and are “a sure way for Islamist groups to drum up public support and to attract funding under the pretext of defending religious sanctity.”
And while in Sri Lanka the National Thowheed Jamath have committed violent acts against Christians, they are also guilty of persecuting Sufi Muslims as “non-believers” in Eastern Sri Lanka, including an attack on a mosque.”
The same ICC report noting Boko Haram attacks on Christians also highlights attacks on “Muslims opposing the group, members of the police and security forces, ‘Westerners,’ journalists, as well as UN personnel.”[2]
Furthermore, while Wahhabism has led to religious repression against Christians and minorities being unable to practice their faith in Saudi Arabia, it has also resulted in the disenfranchisement of Shia Muslims politically, religiously, and economically.
Understanding the persecution of Christians requires resisting the temptation to cast it as a so-called “clash of civilisations” between the Islamic world and Christians. Christian communities are one among several groups who fall outside the theo-ideological boundaries set by Islamist movements-- state and non-state alike.
Islamists who burn churches in Pakistan, target Christian villages and schools in Nigeria, or limit the practice of Christianity in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have also attacked and disenfranchised Muslim communities and other minorities, including those entirely outside the fold of Abrahamic faiths.
The thread linking these cases is rarely an exclusively deep-seated hatred of Christianity or Christians, but rather the enforcement of ideological identity with a larger political aim. Even in cases of explicitly hatred-driven attacks, there are bigger political forces at play. While Christians unfortunately suffer in these dynamics – alongside other minorities and those opposing extremism – this needs to be understood within the boundaries of history, geopolitics, and socioeconomics. A lack of contextualization leads to those with political agendas weaponizing victimhood, resulting in a greater cycle of violence, the creation of further mistrust, and aggravated division.
Islamist attacks on Christians also occur in cases of socio-economic failures that have fueled discontent and social fragmentation. Islamist movements do not emerge in a vacuum; they result from state failure and socio-economic crisis. This is visible in countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, where Islamist movements exploit poverty, lack of opportunity, and poor welfare services to expand and recruit new members. Ultimately, this leads to deeper social fragmentation and attacks on minorities, including Christians. Writing on Boko Haram, Nigerian scholar Efehi Raymond Okoro notes that poor governance has enabled Islamist fundamentalism to take root and become a major security threat in Northern Nigeria.
Pew Research indicates that Christians, as the largest and most geographically dispersed religious group, face persecution in 166 countries in some form. This is followed by Muslims in 148 countries and Jews in 90. These figures do not measure which group is “most persecuted” but rather the number of countries in which harassment occurs, roughly corresponding (with the exception of Jewish people) to the global distribution of each religious group. This is an important distinction that is often misunderstood and weaponized.
Islamist persecution against Christians should not be taken lightly. However, in the broader context of geopolitical realities, Christians are persecuted less because of anti-Christian sentiment and more because they are deemed a threat to religio-political projects of enforced homogeneity.
Tasneem Vania is a Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) scholar at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). Steven Gruzd is head of SAIIA’s African Governance and Diplomacy Programme.
[1] International Criminal Court. 2013. “Situation in Nigeria.” https://www.icc cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/PIDS/docs/SAS%20-%20NGA%20-%20Public%20version%20Article%205%20Report%20-%2005%20August%202013.PDF.
[2]International Criminal Court. 2013. “Situation in Nigeria.” https://www.icc cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/PIDS/docs/SAS%20-%20NGA%20-%20Public%20version%20Article%205%20Report%20-%2005%20August%202013.PDF.
