R-E-V-E-A-L-E-D-! Terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” are evidently creations of non-Muslims – NSCIA
*Nigeria Islamic Council, others never kept silence over involvement of Christians in terrorist activities in country – Respondents
*As non-partisan experts, Amnesty International neutralise claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria
*Banditry in Northwest, Northeast and Southeast fueled by overlapping factors of poverty, mass youth unemployment – Islamic Council
*Lists also drug abuse, porous borders and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons over the decades as drivers for insecurity in Nigeria
*Islamic Council commends nonpartisan patriotic, truth loving Christian individuals like Femi Falana, Femi Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri and Gov Soludo, others
*Sultan-led Islamic Council to Christians: “Do not let foreign political gladiators or domestic separatists use our real pain to destroy our shared home”
By KEMI KASUMU
Dismissing claims of a genocide targeted at Christians in the country, it added that “Non-partisan experts have refuted this blackmail and Amnesty International, which methodically investigated the insecurity in Nigeria, had stated that there is “no evidence of a religious motivation” to characterise it as genocide.”
In a follow up to the Sunday November 9, 2025 press conference addressed by the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in Abuja, The DEFENDER Newspaper can again report from a clearer part of the NSCIA’s press conference address following feedbacks received, anonymously, from some members of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah joining in the Council’s rejection of Christian genocide accusers that tend to concentrate their blame game on Islam, their Allah-chosen religion.
This global online newspaper has earlier reported the Supreme Council’s refutation of the information being brandished by United States of America and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) leaders as Christian genocide by terrorist group they claim are using Islam to kill Christians, saying so with the backing of Western and some local media in a way that put the Muslim-Muslim joint ticket presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the President Donald Trump’s slab of slaughter with portrait of an official design to kill and wipe out Christians from Nigeria’s over 200 million population through a genocidal mission to actualise their alleged Islamisation agenda.
But the Nigeria Supreme Council for Affairs, after an expanded General Assembly meeting presides over by its President-General and Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar on Sunday November 9, 2025, said it is cheer irresponsible talk to want to tanish the image of the Muslims’ religion of peace with such claims once presented by Bishop Matthew Kukah as faith with a pool of violence when, according to the NSCIA, it is not hidden from the world that terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” are evidently creations of non-Muslims.
“The world knows that some of the terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” are creations of non-Muslims. For instance, it is publicly acknowledged that the United States of America created Al-Qaeda, which is being projected as Islamic. Also, a US Congressman, Scott Perry, testified that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was financing the activities of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in Nigeria and elsewhere,” the NSCIA press conference addressed by its Secretary General Professor Is-haq Oluyede said.
None of the allegations against America as force behind terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” has been denied for for over decade they have been made.
The apex Islamic body in Nigeria said, “For the avoidance of doubt, what Nigeria faces is a complex and tragic perennial security crisis that brings immeasurable pain to all its citizens, regardless of faith or ethnic persuasion. From Katsina to Borno and from Benue to Plateau, as well as in Kaduna and Kwara, Nigeria bleeds through gruesome savagery against Muslims and Christians, Imams and priests.”
Dismissing claims of a genocide targeted at Christians in the country, it added that “Non-partisan experts have refuted this blackmail and Amnesty International, which methodically investigated the insecurity in Nigeria, had stated that there is “no evidence of a religious motivation” to characterise it as genocide.”
The NSCIA pointed out that ”While President Trump and Senator Cruz name “Radical Islamists” and “Islamist Jihadists” as the culprits, ISWAP and Boko Haram, the fact is that these groups are khawarij (deviants), whose ideology declares Muslims who do not join them as “dissidents”. Muslims are also their victims.
“As Amnesty International correctly stated, “The jihadist groups kill both Muslims and Christians. They demolish Mosques and Churches. They don’t differentiate”. These terrorists are not our representatives; they are our mortal enemies.”
This global online newspaper recalls that it is not the first time the Sultan-led Muslims have always denied representation of them by the acclaimed terrorists, media and members of the Nigerian society vested with duty to spread that expectedly played role of the Islamic umbrella body wittingly or unwittingly either refused or failed to let it go viral in what looks like they are standing with plot to wrongly castigate Islam and Muslims for the evil criminality.
References have been made to how even Christians and people from parts of the South were listed among Boko Haram members arrested during the era of President Goodluck Jonathan and how the terrorist arrested trying to bomb a Sunday service of Winners Chapel in Kaduna, despite effort by Christian Association of Nigeria to cover up the identify, was disclosed to be a pastor thus shutting the door to claims of “Islamic terrorism” and rather present insecurity in Nigeria as either a creation of either criminal act borne out of failed system or deliberate West-sponsored anti-Islam warfare in the country.
This vindicates the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) on its statement that some of the terrorist groups being paraded as “Islamic” are creations of non-Muslims, citing instances public acknowledgement that the United States of America created Al-Qaeda being erroneously projected as Islamic and, also that a US Congressman, Scott Perry, testified that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was financing the activities of Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“If the violence in some parts of Nigeria is not religious, what are the real drivers? The first is ecological. As the International Crisis Group has detailed in multiple reports, how relentless desertification and drought, products of climate change, have degraded pastures and dried up water sources in the far-northern Sahelian belt.
“This is not an “Islamist invasion”; it is a desperate southward migration of herders seeking survival. This climate-driven migration forces herders into direct, and often violent competition with sedentary farming communities over dwindling resources of land and water. Historic grazing reserves have been lost to expanding settlements, and traditional conflict resolution mechanisms have eroded. This is the flashpoint for the farmer-herder crisis in Plateau, Benue and other middle belt states in Northern Nigeria.
“The second driver is criminality. In the Northwest, Northeast and Southeast, banditry is fueled by the overlapping factors of grinding poverty, mass youth unemployment, drug abuse, porous borders and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons over the decades. Crucially, as researchers have noted, it is also driven by illicit artisanal mining of solid minerals.
“Criminal syndicates and bandits sack villages and displace populations, creating an ungoverned space for their illegal mining operations. This is a violent, organised crime racket for resources and there is nothing Islamic about it also. In Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto axis, Muslims have lost more than 1,200 souls to the same bandits who answer to crime, not tribe or faith. The United States Department itself, in its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, stated that “banditry and other criminality, not animosity between particular religious groups… were the primary drivers” of intercommunal violence. This is not a religious war.
“Then, we cannot gloss over how, over a long period, failure of governance has enabled violence in Nigeria. Studies have revealed how endemic corruption, lack of accountability for human rights abuses and failure to provide basic security for citizens have, over time, created a vacuum for impunity. When the state fails to protect anyone, criminals and militias thrive. This is a “massive state failure”, as some have called it, not a state-sponsored “genocide””.
Beneficiary of lies
The NSCIA asked, “Who benefits from this lie? First, there are foreign instigators, especially some American politicians who seek to energise their domestic evangelical base. We name Senator Ted Cruz, who falsely claims Nigeria is “facilitating the mass murder of Christians”. We name Congressman Riley Moore, who pushes wildly unverified claims of “50,000-100,000” Christians murdered.
“Their concern is not for Nigerians. Their concern is about votes in Texas and West Virginia. These foreign actors are aided and abetted by domestic instigators who have a clear political/ economic, not religious, agenda. We must identify a separatist group like “Biafra Republic Government In-Exile”. Regulatory filings in Washington, D.C. have shown that these individuals are outspending the Nigerian government on lobbyists. And what is their core message?
“The filings show they are “focused on raising the issue of ‘Christian killings’ on Capitol Hill”. This is a political separatist group, weaponising a religious identity to achieve its goal: the balkanisation and fragmentation of Nigeria. These lobbyists who received millions of dollars flood Washington with doctored videos and fake statistics. They quote “52,000 Christians killed since 2009”, a number even Open Doors refuses to endorse.
There is also, as we have previously stated, a network of Nigerian citizens at home and abroad who have “found a big business in self-flagellation”. These crisis entrepreneurs “exploit transactions in religious antipathy as easy pathways to global recognition and fame”. They fabricate or decontextualise claims of persecution to gain speaking tours, material gains, or preferential asylum status in the West.
“The media is awash with evidence of some religious leaders and elite who originated the false claim for non-religious purposes. Some of them ignite and pretend to, at the same time, extinguish fire. We condemn these individuals engaging in falsehood and acts that verge on treason,” it exposed it all.
This, it was said, why the Council is extremely disappointed by the false proclamation of the CAN President, which has now shown clearly that the individuals who were propagating the falsehood were, in reality, playing the scripts of CAN.
The Islamic Council, however, said, “We commend the principled stance of some patriotic and responsible Christians, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)’s Director of National Issues and Social Welfare, who noted thus: “Sometimes, our situation is being taken advantage of by groups who know what they benefit from foreign interests. Those foreign interests have a right to poke their nose into what’s going on in our system, but we also have a right to report things as they are… Also, the spate of killings does not take any pattern. If they open fire in a marketplace, the bullets don’t look for a Christian or spare a Muslim or even spare a baby.”
The NSCIA continued, “So, all we must be doing now is adopt an all-of-society action to stop this insurgency and also address issues of groupthink. Why run to America when you have a Senate here where you can file your petition? In the end, when they place Nigeria as a country of particular interest, all of us will suffer. But those who run abroad to look for sympathy know why they do that.
“For being factual, we also commend individuals like Mr Femi Falana, SAN, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri and Gov. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, among numerous other Christians for their sincerity, while we denounce irresponsible bigots in religious garbs and ethnic irredentists who fail to realise that you don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. The citizens that falsely concoct a genocide claim, which is capable of igniting divisions and religious war that can turn the country into a battlefield field are neither patriotic nor Godly.
“Notwithstanding the fact that there are over 1,000 Christians in Gaza, yet, the United States continues to support the globally-condemned genocide against Palestinians. The same USA that is currently planning to invade Venezuela, a country where Christians constitute 80% of its population, has suddenly become the “messiah of the Nigerian Christians.”
“Countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. are worse off today because bombs don’t discriminate destruction.
“Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s re-imposition of the “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) designation on Nigeria is an act of political cynicism. This is the same designation placed on China and Russia. This designation of Nigeria was lifted by the previous U.S. administration in 2023 when the USA acknowledged the complex reality. Its re-imposition by President Trump is not based on new facts: it is a political tool, wielded by lobbyists, and it cheapens the very idea of “religious freedom.”
“Since independence, Nigeria has walked within the circle of non-aligned nations, free to choose partners for mutual benefits. As such, Nigeria has always extended a welcome to all, to China as to Africa’s broader family. We have many opportunities to harness from diplomatic diversification, with each relationship moulding a building block in our development project or offering a pathway towards our national interest. It is quite troubling to note that our progressive relationship with China, our economic recovery, and the increase in our domestic oil refining capacity, which has reduced importation of fuel to the barest minimum, have suddenly attracted this unsavory development.
“So, there is a clear picture: some U.S. politicians seeking domestic votes; U.S. evangelical groups pushing an ideological agenda; Nigerian separatists pushing for fragmentation; and domestic profiteers seeking personal gain are behind this saber-rattling. This is not a human rights campaign; it is a coordinated information operation.
American hypocrisy and Gaza
“To buttress this point, we must ask the most important question: “Why now?” Why this sudden, intense focus on Nigeria? The answer lies in geopolitics. This campaign escalated immediately after Nigeria, at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, reaffirmed its principled and consistent support for a two-state solution and for the solidarity of the Palestinian people.
“It is important to note that this narrative of genocide is also being driven by “far-right and pro-Israel actors”. The goal is to create a distraction, a cynical, despicable “whataboutism” designed to deflect from the actual genocide being perpetrated in Gaza. They seek to create a false moral equivalence, screaming about an imaginary “Christian genocide” by Muslims in Nigeria to drown out the world’s condemnation of a real, documented genocide of Muslims in Palestine.
“Notwithstanding the fact that there are over 1,000 Christians in Gaza, yet, the United States continues to support the globally-condemned genocide against Palestinians. The same USA that is currently planning to invade Venezuela, a country where Christians constitute 80% of its population, has suddenly become the “messiah of the Nigerian Christians.”
Agenda both of distraction and destabilisation
It said, “The ultimate agenda is not just distraction; it is destabilisation. Our own Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has warned the world, in plain terms, “We should not create another Sudan” in Nigeria. The United States is well aware that stoking religious division is the fastest and most effective way to destabilise a multi-ethnic, multi-religious nation of over 220 million people like Nigeria. They are using these “tools of foreign manipulation” to fragment Nigeria from within, setting the stage for our collapse, just as it is being planned for South Africa.
“This agenda is not hidden. We refer to a recent op-ed from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a prominent U.S. foreign policy think tank. In this article, the author, Michael Rubin, asks two questions in the same breath. First: “Is there a Christian genocide?” And second: “Just as Somaliland’s independence has become a U.S. national interest, would Biafran independence also augment regional security?” The geopolitical objective is the fragmentation of Nigeria to achieve the avowed mission of the separatists, in line with the IPOB agenda.”
The Islamic Council’s messages to Nigeria, US, others
“We turn to our genuine Christian brothers and sisters. You are not our enemies; you are our compatriots, colleagues and neighbours. We are both, over a long period, Muslim and Christian, victims of a failed security architecture and a brutal criminal insurgency that targets us all. We have never denied our collective pain. Do not let foreign political gladiators or domestic separatists use our real pain to destroy our shared home.”
“While the NSCIA stands for and promotes equity and fairness, let nobody be under illusion that Muslims would allow themselves to be further decimated and further under-represented through a subterfuge aimed at further increasing the Christian representation in federal appointments from the publicly acknowledged 62% (or heads of armed and security forces already predominantly Christian), and where Islamophobic policies, such as recently enacted by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), would be the norm.
“We turn to our genuine Christian brothers and sisters. You are not our enemies; you are our compatriots, colleagues and neighbours. We are both, over a long period, Muslim and Christian, victims of a failed security architecture and a brutal criminal insurgency that targets us all. We have never denied our collective pain. Do not let foreign political gladiators or domestic separatists use our real pain to destroy our shared home. We are both, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has rightly said, committed to a Nigeria where “religious freedom and tolerance” are the “core tenet of our collective identity”. We, as Muslims, stand with you against all violence, against all criminality, and against all terror.
“We affirm that there is no Christian genocide in Nigeria. There is no Muslim genocide in Nigeria. There is no religious intolerance in Nigeria. The Nigerian tragedy is that of poverty, climate change, bad governance over time, and armed criminals who kill indiscriminately while a section of the world seeks to exploit the situation for geopolitical profit.
“We call on the international community and the press gathered here to reject this false, dangerous, and destabilising narrative.
“We call on the Nigerian government to redouble its efforts to protect all its citizens, regardless of faith, destroy the bandits and terrorists, expose and hold the domestic instigators of this divisive lie accountable, and shame the foreign lobbyists against Nigeria. We commend the resolve of the government to, with dignity and honour, engage the USA and the rest of the international community on how to eliminate terrorism and banditry in Nigeria and, indeed, in the sub-region.
“We urge President Trump to retract branding Nigeria a “disgraced country” and rather assist the Nation with credible intelligence, critical logistics and human capacity development to enable the country overcome insecurity in different parts of Nigeria. Genuine assistance requires partnership, not unilateral actions, which might, even if inadvertent, fragment the Nigerian Nation.
“And we state to the world, as a unified Nigerian Muslim Ummah: we will not be defined by this lie and we will not accept that our country be fragmented by a foreign agenda. As a people of faith, we believe that the truth will prevail and our unity as a nation will endure,” it concluded.
