In a direct rebuttal to a growing narrative in Washington, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump has asserted that terrorist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS have been responsible for the deaths of more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, dismissing claims of systematic religious persecution as “inaccurate” and “misleading.”
Massad Boulos, Senior Adviser to President Trump on Arab and African Affairs, made these comments in an interview shared by the Nigerian Television Authority on social media platform X.
His response came as a response to escalating allegations from some U.S. politicians that Christians are being specifically targeted in Nigeria.
Boulos framed terrorism in Nigeria as a universal threat, insisting it is not driven by religious ideology in its violence against civilians.
“Any incident, any loss of life is absolutely unfortunate. Those who know the terrain well know that terrorism has no colour, no religion and no tribe. People of all religions and all tribes are dying as a result of terrorist acts,” Boulos stated. He then delivered the central, clarifying statistic: “We even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians. So people are suffering from all sorts of backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted about one group or the other.”
Addressing the volatile clashes in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, often framed along religious lines as conflicts between predominantly Muslim herders and Christian farmers, Boulos acknowledged the incidents but rejected the premise of a religious war.
“There are other incidents that happen to be in the Middle Belt, for example, where farmers are located. Most of these farmers happen to be Christian, and some herdsmen are going through, and they have these incidents. But it’s not something that we can say is specifically targeted about this specific group,” he explained.
Shifting focus to the government’s response, Boulos commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for its recent security efforts. “The Nigerian government and the President Tinubu’s administration have recently taken additional measures and put more resources in those areas. We’ve seen some improvements in recent weeks. We appreciate those measures, and we definitely look forward to more of those,” he said.
He further praised Nigeria’s long history of religious coexistence, highlighting its diverse demographic makeup as a source of strength. “Nigeria is a country in which all sorts of religious groups and other groups, ethnic and tribal, are living together in harmony for centuries. The population is split 50-50 between Christians and Muslims, so this has never been a serious religious issue and should not be,” Boulos affirmed, calling for continued U.S.-Nigeria partnership to combat terrorism.
Boulos’s remarks carry significant weight because they directly counter a concerted push by influential U.S. lawmakers to reassess Nigeria’s diplomatic status. His comments come amid a renewed and heated debate in Washington concerning Nigeria’s record on religious freedom.
This debate was catalyzed by actions such as that of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who recently accused Nigerian officials of “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.” Senator Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act to the Senate, legislation designed to sanction officials deemed responsible for these alleged violations.
Similarly, Congressman Riley Moore of West Virginia has formally urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC)—a label reserved for the world’s most severe violators of religious freedom—and to suspend arms sales until the government demonstrates a commitment to protecting Christians.
The backdrop to this political clash is a recent policy reversal. Nigeria was placed on the CPC list in 2020 during the Trump administration, only to be removed by President Joe Biden in 2021—a decision that sparked immediate criticism from conservative groups and lawmakers.
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