MURIC Accuses US Of Selective Persecution Of Muslims In Nigeria

By Ayodele Oni

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has flayed the decision of the United States (US) to single out only Muslims for sanctions over banditry in Nigeria describing the decision as lopsided, unjust and selective.

Five US lawmakers on Wednesday proposed a bill seeking to impose sanctions, including visa ban and asset freeze, on a former governor of Kano State and the national leader of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, among others.

‎Executive Director of the group, Prof Ishaq Akintola, said on Thursday, that government officials in Southern Nigeria, who have been persecuting Muslims in the region, as well as leaders of Christian militia groups in North Central Nigeria, whose terror machines have been killing Muslim residents and Muslim travellers in the zone for decades should be sanctioned by the US to make the exercise balanced, objective and transparent.

”We take the decision of the US Congress to sanction Muslims alone with a pinch of salt. It amounts to scapegoating, preconceived judgement and crusade-brandishing.

‎”Coming to Nigeria with the avowed aim of protecting Christians carries with it the implications of coming to promote Christianity, coming to deter the prosecution of Christian criminals who are behind the killing of hundreds of Muslim travellers in Plateau State, coming to undermine Islam, coming to persecute Muslims and coming to encourage Muslim haters.

‎”We affirm that there is denial of religious freedom and religious extremism in Nigeria. But we identify the culprits behind this heinous crime as religious fanatics among both Christians and Muslims. In short, we are saying there are Muslim extremists and there are Christian extremists.

‎”Now, if sanctions are to be imposed on certain figures and groups, such sanctions must be comprehensive and unbiased, not selective and lopsided. For an objective sanction exercise, therefore, the US must beam its searchlight on the whole country.

‎”As a Muslim human rights group that has been in operation for 32 years (since 1994) MURIC has records of proven acts of inhumanity, discrimination, marginalization, denial of religious freedom and other acts of violation of rights committed by individual Christian state actors in Southern Nigeria.

“For the avoidance of doubts, we assert clearly, unequivocally and emphatically that Christian militia groups of North Central Nigeria, who are well known by the state governments have killed thousands of Muslims in the past decades.

“If, therefore, Northern Muslims are being marked for sanctions, present and past governors and government officials of North Central Nigeria, who have funded, enabled and protected Christian terrorists in the zone deserve conspicuous spaces on the list.

‎”However, we nurse the suspicion that even US officials have always preferred to listen to Nigerian Christians without seeking to hear from Muslims to balance the stories and for justice, equity and fairness.

“This explains why the US Congress has always been anxious to invite Christian activists and clergymen from Nigeria without inviting their Muslim counterparts. This attitude is contrary to the well known principle of justice (audi alteram partem i.e. hear from the other side).

‎”In the present circumstances, with the US false designation of Nigeria as a country perpetrating genocide against Christians without proper investigation and without hearing from the other side, coupled with the fact that the US has also landed its troops on Nigerian soil ‘to protect Nigerian Christians’ while individual Muslim leaders are being marked for sanctions, Nigerian Muslims have no other option than to cry out to the outside world.

‎”We therefore wish to alert the global community to these ugly developments in Nigeria. After decades of forceful conversion and failed attempts to turn Nigeria to the land of Jesus, leaders of the minority Christians in the country have conspired to level false allegations of genocide against us, the majority Muslims, and invited the US military to stem the growth of Islam.

”As at today, the 12th of February, 2026, we nurse the palpable fear of the arrival of the age of conversion to Christianity at gunpoint, aided and abetted by the US military. Muslims have become endangered species in Nigeria.

“Nigerian Muslims have no reason to antagonize America. Neither has there ever been any declared hostility between the US and Nigerian Muslims. It is also true that apart from millions of Americans who are Muslims, hundreds of Nigerian Muslims make their living in the US. It is therefore in our mutual interest to avoid tension.”