{"id":1057646,"date":"2021-11-26T15:13:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T20:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1057646"},"modified":"2021-11-26T15:13:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T20:13:49","slug":"chris-smith-slams-biden-administrations-retreat-from-religious-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chris-smith-slams-biden-administrations-retreat-from-religious-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Smith Slams Biden Administration\u2019s \u2018Retreat\u2019 from Religious Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchris-smith-slams-biden-administrations-retreat-from-religious-liberty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1057646&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has blasted a decision by the U.S. State Department to remove Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), calling the move \u201ca retreat from the noble and necessary fight to protect victims of religious persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/chrissmith.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=409721\">noted<\/a> this week that Genocide Watch has called Nigeria a \u201ckilling field of defenseless Christians\u201d while the Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors ranked Nigeria the world\u2019s ninth most serious violator of religious freedom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2021\/01\/13\/watch-list-nigeria-top-country-for-murdered-christians-in-2020\/\">stating<\/a> that \u201cmore Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>In May, the&nbsp;<em>Tablet <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/news\/14160\/death-toll-escalates-among-nigerian-christians-\">reported<\/a> that thousands of Christians in Nigeria had been kidnapped and hundreds killed in just the first four months of 2021, noting a dangerous \u201cescalation\u201d in targeted violence against Nigeria\u2019s Christian population.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigeria-based Int\u2019l Society for Civil Liberties &amp; Rule of Law (Intersociety), a human rights group, also <a href=\"https:\/\/intersociety-ng.org\/nigerian-islamic-jihadists-massacred-1-370-christians-in-first-four-months-of-2021-and-abducted-over-2500\/\">reported<\/a> in May that Islamic jihadists had massacred 1,470 Christians in the first four months of 2021 and abducted over 2,200.<\/p>\n<p>The 1,470 Christian deaths in those four months exceeded the total number of Christians killed in 2019, the report said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_18909042\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"36\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1204514891.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-18909042\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1204514891-1024x716-1.jpg\" alt width=\"990\" height=\"692\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>A Catholic faithful holding a rosary attends a march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered the faithful as well as other Christians and other people to pray for security and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (KOLA SULAIMON\/AFP via Getty)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Smith said that \u201cdespite the fact that Fulani militants are systematically targeting and slaughtering Christian farmers in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt as well as attacking non-Fulanis throughout the country with the apparent complicity or at least indifference of Nigerian authorities \u2014 a record that landed Nigeria on the CPC list last year \u2014 the State Department no longer identifies Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), nor even places Nigeria on its Special Watch List.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his rebuke to the State Department, Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscirf.gov\/news-room\/releases-statements\/uscirf-appalled-administrations-removal-nigeria-list-violators\">joined<\/a> the non-partisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which said it was \u201cappalled\u201d at the decision.<\/p>\n<p>USCIRF sharply criticized President Biden\u2019s reversal, saying it was \u201cunexplainable that the U.S. Department of State did not redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and treated it as a country with no severe religious freedom violations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/11\/19\/baffling-error-joe-biden-removes-nigeria-from-religious-oppressor-list-despite-christian-persecution\/\">reported<\/a>, the CEO of Open Doors USA, David Curry, called the State Department\u2019s removal of Nigeria from the CPC list a \u201cbaffling error,\u201d which is \u201clikely in direct violation of the International Religious Freedom Act, the law that requires these designations to be made in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tdwilliamsrome?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @tdwilliamsrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) has blasted a decision by the U.S. State Department to remove Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), calling the move \u201ca &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}