The federal government has rejected the labeling of Nigeria by the United States among countries who “engage in systematic, ongoing, egregious religious freedom violations.”
U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who announced the blacklist on Monday, December 7, said the countries slammed with the label were involved religious freedom attacked.
Information minister, Lai Mohammed, said the labeling of Nigeria was a case of “honest disagreement between the two nations on the causes of violence in Nigeria.
”Nigeria does not engage in religious freedom violation, neither does it have a policy of religious persecution,” he said.
The other countries also listed as oppressive to religious freedom include; China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The VOA said in an annual State Department report on Nigeria published earlier this year took note of concerns both at the federal and state levels.
It pointed to the mass detention of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a Shi’ite Muslim group that has been at loggerheads with the government for decades and was banned by a court.
According to the VOA, the State Department report also highlighted the arrests of Muslims for eating in public in Kano state during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours.
It also took note of the approval of a bill in Kaduna state to regulate religious preaching.