By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

 JOS, Nigeria-The United States commission on International religious Freedom released a new report this week about the level of religious persecution around the world. The report identifies over two dozen countries as offenders. Some of the countries include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. Egypt has been noted to discriminate against those who are members of minority Muslim sects in the country. Many are known to be imprisoned because of their faith, some fired from their jobs, and kicked out of universities, amongst many other things.

 Of all of the countries identified for religious persecution, Nigeria has been getting the most attention for its impunity violations.  In the past ten years 12,000 people have been killed in a cycle of violence between Christians of Southern Nigeria and Muslims in the North.  Last week two Christian journalists were killed in Northern Nigeria.  The murders are believed to have been committed by young muslim men who were answering calls to the cell phones of the deceased journalists, bragging about what they had done.  The deceased were identified as Nathan S. Dabak, an assistant editor at a newspaper of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, and Sunday Gyang Bweade, a reporter at the publication.

 In response to the religious persecution in Nigeria one interdenominational Christian religious group based in Nigeria called on Christians and Muslims in the country to be more tolerable of one another and live in harmony.

 Other countries identified in the report were North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Iraq. The list has grown by five since the State Department released a list of its own in 2009.

 For more information please see:

 CNN – Religious Persecution Is Widespread Report Warns – 29 April 2010

Mission Network – Christians Murdered…- 29 April 2010

Nigerian Compass – We Must Live In Harmony..- 28 April 2010