International Institute for Religious Freedom: nuanced insights on Nigeria

Two recent reports and a comment from the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) offer valuable insights into the ongoing kidnappings and massacres in northern Nigeria.

While the topic has, thankfully, begun to attract media coverage, articles often lack clarity – or even convey considerable disagreement – about the underlying causes for the mayhem.

The first IIRF report considers the extent to which Christians are particular victims of violent attacks; the comment reflects on that report; and the second report alerts us not to look only for religious motives.

The IIRF “was founded in 2005 with the mission to promote religious freedom for all faiths from an academic perspective.” Participants are from all over the world, but there is definitely a local connection.

One of the four regional IIRF affiliates is based here in Vancouver.

Retired Trinity Western professor Janet Epp Buckingham is a member of the governing board and edits the group’s International Journal for Religious Freedom.

Paul Rowe, Professor of Political and International Studies at TWU, is on the academic board of the IIRF and the editorial board of the IJRF.

Following are excerpts from the reports and comment.

• Iulian Chifu et al: Analytical Intelligence Report: Nigerian Christians as Victims of Islamist Extremism (December 19, 2025)

[T]he report is designed to serve a constructive purpose: to support the authorities of Nigeria, who are confronting an extremely complicated multi-ethnic, multi-religious and security environment.

The objective is not criticism but assistance – offering clear, precise and objective information that can help state institutions implement effective reforms, stabilize affected regions and rebuild public trust.

It is in the interest of all parties – Nigeria, the wider West African region and the international community – to preserve Nigeria’s stability, territorial integrity and cohesion, as well as the safety and dignity of all its citizens, regardless of ethnic or religious identity. . . .

Conclusion: The Evidence is Clear

Across all credible international sources – UN, US, EU, Amnesty, HRW [Human Rights Watch], ICG [International Crisis Group], Open Doors – the evidence converges:

• Christians in Nigeria are disproportionately targeted,
• attacks follow identifiable patterns,
• the perpetrators are largely Islamist or extremist groups,
• and the state response is insufficient to protect vulnerable communities.

The situation represents one of the gravest religious-targeted crises in the world, requiring urgent, coordinated international engagement.

The evidence from the Open Doors WWL 2025 dossier reveals a consistent and alarming pattern: Christians in Nigeria are subjected to systematic, targeted and multilayered violence that spans from mass executions in rural communities to state-linked extrajudicial killings in the Southeast.

Across the North, Middle Belt and increasingly the South, Christian villages are attacked in coordinated night raids, male population lines are selectively executed, families are burned alive in their homes and Christian women and girls are abducted, raped and enslaved as instruments of terror and forced Islamisation.

Boko Haram, ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province], Fulani militant networks, armed bandit groups and newly emerging Islamist formations act with near impunity, while in parts of the East, security forces themselves are implicated in killings, disappearances and the destruction of civilian property.

The destruction of churches, Christian schools, community centers and religious symbols is not incidental – it is deliberate. It aims to erase Christian presence, dismantle social cohesion and force long-term demographic displacement.

Village after village in Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and several South-Eastern states has been emptied, burned or rendered uninhabitable. These patterns, verified independently by both reports, meet internationally recognized indicators of sectarian mass atrocities and identity-based persecution.

In total, the data show thousands of Christians killed every year, tens of thousands over the past decade, and millions displaced. The scale, frequency and geographic spread of the attacks demonstrate that this is not random criminality nor isolated communal conflict, but rather a coordinated and evolving campaign of violence against Christian populations.

If these dynamics remain unaddressed, Nigeria risks further descent into a protracted religious and ethnic conflict whose humanitarian and geopolitical consequences will extend far beyond its borders. The urgency of international engagement – diplomatic, security, humanitarian and investigative – cannot be overstated.

Go here for the 24-page report, including full biographies about he eight authors.

• Kyle Wisdom: Amidst competing narratives in Nigeria, good research is critical (January 2 2026)

This report [‘Nigerian Christians as Victims of Islamist Extremism’] opens by clarifying the conceptual landscape of violence in Nigeria, cautioning against simplistic labels and emphasizing multiple contributing factors of banditry, Islamist insurgency and communal conflict.

It situates Nigeria within a wider Salafi-Islamist environment, mapping pressure points across its borders: the Lake Chad Basin (ISWAP and Boko Haram remnants), the Sahel corridor via Niger and Burkina Faso (JNIM [Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin] and Katiba Macina) and emerging vectors through Benin and the Gulf of Guinea.

Subsequent sections detail how Islamist groups are financed – notably through kidnapping for ransom, cattle taxation, smuggling and quasi-state zakat systems – and outline leadership structures linking Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru and Sahelian actors.

The report also examines the wider nexus of relations among Gulf countries, arguing that while there is no formal state sponsorship, multiple avenues contribute to funding the humanitarian crisis. Exporting of ideology, private donations, charitable networks, ransom mediation and permissive financial environments have indirectly enabled extremist ecosystems.

The second half of the report centers on evidence of the suffering of Christians in Nigeria, marshaling corroboration from UN, US, EU and international human-rights organizations. It documents systematic patterns of violence: massacres of Christian villages, targeted killings and kidnappings of clergy, sexual violence and forced Islamization, widespread church destruction, and attacks timed to Christian holy days such as Christmas and Easter.

Using conservative statistical estimates, the report highlights thousands of deaths annually in peak years and millions displaced, while noting underreporting due to insecurity and rural inaccessibility. The concluding sections emphasize the importance of international recognition of the crisis and argue that the evidence demonstrates a coherent pattern of identity-based persecution intertwined with broader security failures.

Therefore, an effective response requires coordinated counterterrorism, civilian protection, governance reform and international engagement.

Dr. Kyle Wisdom is Deputy Director of the IIRF and author of Civil, Religious Pluralism as Political Philosophy.

Go here for the full comment.

• Dennis Petri: Stop Looking Only for a Religious Motive (December 19, 2025)

In the religious freedom field, when a violent incident happens, we frequently hear the same question: “Is this really religious persecution?” What they usually mean is: “Was this person or group deliberately targeted with an explicit religious motive?”

I believe the religious freedom movement needs to ask broader questions than just whether there was an explicitly anti-religious intent. Instead of treating motive as the defining criterion, we should examine how religious identity or behavior shapes a community’s vulnerability to harm.

Once we understand that vulnerability, we can focus on taking steps to reduce it.

This is not an argument for ignoring motive altogether. Rather, it is a call to avoid allowing motive to function as a gatekeeping device that narrows our field of vision and delays protective action. . . .

Dr. Dennis Petri is International Director of the IIRF, founder and scholar-at-large of the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America, Executive Director of the Foundation Platform for Social Transformation, Associate Professor of International Relations and Head of the Chair of Humanities at the Latin American University of Science and Technology (Costa Rica) and Adjunct Professor of International Negotiation and Research Methods at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (UNESCO).

Go here for the 8-page report.

Dennis Petri and Ronald McMillan (Chair of the IIRF) have just initiated an insightful Substack site, Five4Faith, “a weekly blog where two religious freedom experts share their analysis of the shifting geopolitical realities.” The first post, by McMillan December 23, was ‘The President and the Triangle of Terror,’ where he argues that Donald Trump’s threat to send a military force into Nigeria “won’t make any difference” and “will waste hundreds of millions of dollars.”