Last week, more than 42 people were slaughtered in Nigeria when gunmen raided two neighboring villages in Nigeria. In one incident, armed gunmen stormed into a market in Kasuwa Daji in Niger state and began shooting and kidnapping civilians.
And yet, despite the abundance of evidence, the New York Times continues to refuse to recognize these attacks for what they are: anti-Christian violence driven by Islamist ideology.
In its news article reporting the attacks, the New York Times summarily dismissed, without any meaningful examination, the well-documented reality that this violence forms part of a broader campaign against Christians in Nigeria, one that is most accurately described as a genocide. (RELATED: Expert Raises Grave Fears of a ‘Christmas Massacre’ in Nigeria)
“That claim [of Christian genocide] is widely dismissed by analysts as a mischaracterization of the situation on the ground,” the Times declares. (RELATED: Media Denies Christian Genocide in Response to Trump’s Threat of Military Action in Nigeria)
But the Times declines to identify who these so-called “analysts” are, nor does it explain the evidence on which their conclusions rest. Given that the paper reported President Donald Trump’s allegation that his Christmas strike in Nigeria was ordered on Islamic State terrorists “who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians,” one would think that the Times would substantiate its dismissal of the claims of genocide with more than a vague appeal to unnamed “analysts.” And yet, the Times asserts, without argument, attribution, or analysis, that analysts say this is false, and then moves on. (RELATED: Defending Nigeria’s Christians from Islamist Genocide)
This is in spite of the fact that the Times’ own reporting makes clear the religious nature of these most recent attacks.
The Times reported that some of the children abducted in the attack on Kasuwa Daji attend St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, which is the same school from which more than 300 students were kidnapped in November.
Also, the Times spoke to the Rev. Stephen Kabirat, a Catholic priest, about the attacks. He told the Times that gunmen had also attacked the nearby Catholic church in Papiri in recent days. “They were looking for the priest, but luckily he escaped,” Kabirat explained to the Times. The gunmen had been able to abduct several children, however, Kabirat said.
It is difficult not to marvel at how the Times can describe gunmen attacking a Catholic church and hunting down its priest, and then, in the same breath, brush aside claims of Christian genocide by gesturing toward unnamed “analysts.”
It certainly appears that these most recent attacks were carried out by Islamic militants.
On Sunday, the Nigerian government said that the attacks had been carried out by “terrorists suspected to be fleeing from Sokoto and Zamfara following the United States’ airstrike on Christmas Eve.” The group that would appear to fit that description is the Lakurawa, the group targeted by the U.S. strikes. The United Nations says that the group is suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State – Greater Sahara. The U.N. has also said that the group has “sought to impose their version of Sharia law” and has “harshly punished” those who break its rules.
One local journalist told the BBC about the brutal nature of the attack on Kasuwa Daji: “The gunmen entered the town on motorcycles carrying weapons, rounded up people and then proceeded to slaughter them, while others were shot dead.”
An additional attack on Dec. 29 in Mondag village in Adamawa state killed 11 Nigerian Christians. The killers were reported to have referred to their victims as “hostile Christians.” During the course of their attack, the gunmen destroyed a church. The terrorists also told residents of the village that they should convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax, or be killed.
Rep. Riley Moore, who has been outspoken about Nigerian Christians’ plight, responded to the attack on Adamawa by saying, “If there were any remaining doubts that Christians in Nigeria are being targeted for their faith in Jesus Christ, this should end that debate.”
This most recent statement from the Times is just part of a long effort to deny that what is happening in Nigeria constitutes a violent campaign targeting Christians.
In November, the Times said that Trump “did not cite any evidence for the claim, made in recent weeks by several of his political allies, that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria.” Further, the Times described the fact that “thousands of Christians were facing targeted violence” as “a claim made by some evangelical groups and U.S. lawmakers.”
It is one thing for the paper to deny that the campaign of violence in Nigeria does not constitute genocide; it’s another for it to claim that no evidence of targeted violence against Christians has been presented. The fact that the death toll reaches into the tens of thousands is apparently not enough for them.
The Times has ignored the obvious for far too long and, in so doing, enabled this continued campaign of violence.
READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes:
Expert Raises Grave Fears of a ‘Christmas Massacre’ in Nigeria
