ICC Note: The U.S. State Department has reportedly barred some Christians from testifying on Christian persecution occurring in predominantly Muslim countries, including Nigerian Governor Jonah David Jang. Last year, after the U.S. Institute for Peace invited different Nigerian governors from northern majority-Muslim states for a conference, Governor Jang, the only Christian, had his visa denied by the State Department. According to Nigerian human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, this is due to the anti-Christian bias that exists within the State Department and U.S. government as a whole. This ignorance and refusal to acknowledge Christian persecution in Nigeria may have serious implications for U.S. aid designed to assist Nigeria in combating Boko Haram.
By Raymond Ibrahim
7/24/15, Washington, D.C. (Gatestone Institute) – During the height of one of the most brutal months of Muslim persecution of Christians, the U.S. State Department exposed its double standards against persecuted Christian minorities.
Sister Diana, an influential Iraqi Christian leader, who was scheduled to visit the U.S. to advocate for persecuted Christians in the Mideast, was denied a visa by the U.S. State Department even though she had visited the U.S. before, most recently in 2012.
She was to be one of a delegation of religious leaders from Iraq — including Sunni, Shia and Yazidi, among others — to visit Washington, D.C., to describe the situation of their people. Every religious leader from this delegation to Washington D.C. was granted a visa — except for the only Christian representative, Sister Diana.
After this refusal became public, many Americans protested, some writing to their congressmen. Discussing the nun’s visa denial, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said:
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