WASHINGTON (TNND) — Michael Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called on Rolling Stone Magazine to retract its “egregious headline” of an article covering Nicki Minaj’s speech addressing violence against Christians in Nigeria.
The Rolling Stones article titled ‘Faith is under attack’: Nicki Minaj spreads misleading information at the United Nations’, alleges that Minaj and President Donald Trump’s assertions of violent extremism perpetrated against Nigerian Christians “aren’t backed by any data.”
In response, Waltz shared on X a screenshot of a CBS News article which relayed that two people were killed in a Church attack in Nigeria. The article was posted just hours after Minaj and Waltz spoke before the United Nations mission in New York.
“The persecution of Christians in Nigeria is an undeniable and escalating horror, and it’s utterly reprehensible that the mainstream media persists in downplaying and dismissing this atrocity,” Waltz wrote on X.
“I am grateful for Nicki’s courage in lending her powerful voice to the voiceless on the global stage,” Waltz continued.
“The Trump administration remains steadfast in its commitment to defending religious freedom for Christians everywhere. This barbaric violence must end — NOW.”
Minaj was extended his invitation to join Waltz to speak before the United Nations by the Trump administration. Earlier this month, the Super Bass singer publicly thanked President Donald Trump for “prioritizing” the persecution of Christians in the African Nation, which was named a Country of Particular Concern at the behest of Trump.
It is estimated that since the 2009 insurgency of jihadist group Boko Haram, an estimated 50,000 Christians have been killed in the African nation, according to a report gathered by Rep. Tim Moore (R-WV), who was tapped by Trump to investigate the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Open Doors, a nongovernment organization, determined Nigeria the seventh most dangerous nation for Christians to live in. Roughly half of the people that live in Nigeria are Christian, 40% of Nigerians are Muslim and 10% of Nigerians adhere to another traditional religious belief, according to the University of Notre Dame.
Nigerian leadership have rejected that Christians are being disproportionately targeted. In an opinion piece published in Al Jazeera, Senior Assistant to the President of Nigeria Gimba Kakanda suggested that Boko Haram is persecuting both Christians and Muslims alike.
“In reality, Nigeria’s conflicts are multi-faceted, driven by ethnic rivalries, land disputes and criminality, with religion often secondary,” Kakanda wrote. “Boko Haram, which emerged in Maiduguri, Borno State, in 2009, positioned itself against the Nigerian state as an apostate entity, not against any single religious group. Most of its victims have been Muslims.”
