Singer Nicki Minaj defended religious freedom advocacy as an effort aimed toward “uniting humanity” in remarks at an event profiling the threats to Christians in Nigeria.
Minaj gave the keynote address Tuesday at an event hosted by the United States Mission to the United Nations in New York City, titled “Combating Religious Violence and the Killing of Christians in Nigeria.”
“Music has taken me across the globe,” she said. “I even have seen how people, irrespective of their language, culture or religion, come alive once they hear a song that touches their soul. Religious freedom means all of us can sing our faith no matter who we’re, where we live and what we imagine.”
“Today, faith is under attack in way too many places,” she lamented, detailing how, “In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed.”
“Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart, and full communities live in fear always, just because of how they pray. Sadly, this problem isn’t only a growing problem in Nigeria but additionally in so many other countries the world over, and it demands urgent motion,” she added.
During her speech, Minaj also pushed back on the concept that raising awareness concerning the plight of Christians in Nigeria amounts to creating a political statement: “Protecting Christians in Nigeria isn’t about taking sides or dividing people. It is about uniting humanity. Nigeria is a wonderful nation with deep faith traditions and plenty of beautiful barbz,” a word that refers to Minaj’s fan base.
“This is about standing up within the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve all the time stood for my entire profession, and I’ll proceed to face for that. For the remainder of my life, I’ll care if anyone anywhere is being persecuted for his or her beliefs,” she vowed.
“When one’s church, mosque or place of worship is destroyed, everyone’s heart should break just a bit bit, and the muse of the United Nations, with its core mandate to make sure peace and security, should shake,” Minaj proclaimed.
Minaj’s appearance on the U.N. comes just over two weeks after she responded to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for tolerating egregious violations of spiritual freedom by sharing a screenshot of the post on her X account, accompanied by the caption, “Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a rustic where we are able to freely worship God.”
Her X post continued: “No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t must share the identical beliefs to ensure that us to respect one another. Numerous countries all all over the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”
Minaj’s post also caught the eye of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, who thanked her for using her “platform to talk out in defense of the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria” and invited her to go to the U.S. Embassy to the U.N. The singer indicated in an X post that she can be willing to take him up on his offer by responding to it directly: “I’d be honored. Thank you, Ambassador.”
In addition to remarks from Minaj, the event featured testimony from the Rev. Gabriel Makan of Nigeria, who provided details concerning the ongoing persecution of Christians in his country. “We’ve been experiencing this for 1 / 4 of a century and it has been [an] extremely difficult experience for Christians,” he said. “Whole communities, villages have been extinct in consequence of this violence.”
“Just throughout the last three weeks, there have been multiple attacks in Plateau, in southern Kaduna, in Benue, with nine out of 15 attacks in Plateau state,” he explained. “That simply shows that they imagine that in the event that they crush Plateau, they may crush Christianity not only within the North, but in all of West Africa.”
“We have mass graves literally in every community,” he added. “I’ve been there. I’ve been within the trenches. I’ve been to those places.”
Makan said the nation’s “porous” borders have also contributed to hostility toward Christians: “We have all varieties of people [migrating] into the country unchecked. We don’t know where they’re coming from but from the experience in [the] country, we all know that quite a lot of them include [plans to do] harm.”
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