The 21st century has not been kind to Christianity. While Europeans have voluntarily relinquished their faith, many other Christian communities remain under siege. All U.S. presidents pay lip service to faith, fewer are sincere in their own practice, and fewer still defend Christian communities abroad. President-elect Donald Trump should, however, make defense of besieged Christian communities a cornerstone of his second-term foreign policy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power were especially spineless on this count. Not only did they fail to stop Azerbaijan’s illegal blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh in real time, but after Azerbaijan expelled the region’s indigenous, 1,700-year Christian community, they refused to assign blame. Neither Blinken nor Power are willing to recognize Azerbaijan’s responsibility for ethnic cleansing, preferring instead the phrase “depopulation.” Blinken even vetoes referring to Nagorno-Karabakh’s “depopulation” as forcible, at the point of the gun.
Embracing weasel words does not change reality, nor do softball exit interviews at the Armenian Embassy and a fireside chat with NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell alter Power’s legacy of cynicism and betrayal. Rather, it only encourages racists and bigots to redouble their efforts. Thanks directly to Blinken and Power’s weakness, Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev now threatens to bring his ethnic cleansing campaign to the rest of Armenia. Trump should direct Marco Rubio, whom he nominated for secretary of state, to recognize the expulsion of Christians from Nagorno-Karabakh as ethnic cleansing and hold Aliyev responsible.
Nigeria is another country where Christians suffer. During his first swing through sub-Saharan Africa as secretary of state, Blinken removed Africa’s largest country from its religious freedom watch list, shocking the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The Nigerian regime responded not by bolstering tolerance, but rather by increasing murders, rapes, and mayhem directed toward the Christian community. Blinken blamed climate change, essentially signaling the regime it faced no accountability for its anti-Christian pogroms. After all, climate change does not charter buses for Islamist militiamen to transit the country to attack non-Muslims.
Nigeria is today again at the tipping point. Biafra, the site of a 1967-1970 genocide against the Igbo people, many of whom are Christian or practice a syncretic blend of Christianity with animist beliefs, demanded independence to protect their faith and freedom. Biafrans may debate whether independence should come from unilateral declarations or a U.N.-sponsored referendum, but they agree that Nigeria’s persistent persecution of Christians puts their community in peril. African Christians have had enough with empty assurances and diplomatic defense of their aggressors; Rubio must safeguard Christian communities across Africa, lest their persecutors conclude it is open season on Christians. Freedom matters. So, too, does American credibility.
Few among President Joe Biden’s inner circle are religious. Religion seldom enters their radar screen — they are blissfully ignorant. Take the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Having hollowed out Russian Orthodoxy at home, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought not only to grab territory but also to eradicate the Ukrainian church, along with other Christian sects. Trump may talk about deals, but there can be no bargaining over religious freedom.
The State Department may want to approach Syria with optimism, but religious freedom is always the canary in the coal mine. Reformed al Qaida groups do not behead Christians — they simply harass them, treat them as second-class citizens, and compel them to flee.
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Christianity began in the Middle East — it should not end there. While Europe and the International Criminal Court slander the Jewish state and charge it with genocide, Israel remains the only country in the Middle East where the Christian community grows. Bethlehem, meanwhile, lost almost its entire millennia-old Christian community when the Palestinian Authority took over the city’s stewardship. Perhaps the best thing Trump and Rubio could do is to reform permanently the State Department’s moral inversion and tendency to bash democracies to curry favor with their oppressors.
Trump and some among his entourage may question whether safeguarding religious freedom internationally is really an American interest. It is, for history shows willingness to ensure freedom of faith is the best indicator that a regime is sincere in all its dealings. Trump seeks a legacy — reversing the persecution of Christians that Biden’s policies greased would be a good place to start.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is the director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
