Nicki Minaj praised for highlighting persecution of Nigerian Christians

Rap star Nicki Minaj is garnering praise for using her platform to shed light on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Ahead of Minaj’s scheduled appearance at the United Nations with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, Knox Thames, a human rights lawyer, thanked the rapper for the attention that she and other stars, like Bill Maher, have brought to the issue.

“The challenges in Nigeria have been happening for decades, and they’ve largely been ignored. So I welcome these unsuspecting allies shining a light on this,” Thames said of the celebrities.

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Thames, who served as a State Department special advisor for religious minorities under former President George W. Bush, former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump, said that in Nigeria, “the body count is just too high to ignore.” While he would not say definitively that what is happening in Nigeria is a genocide, he said it is something that must be addressed.

“This question of, ‘is there a Christian genocide happening?’ It’s a legal question. Genocide is defined by international law, and scholars will debate that. But what’s undeniable is that in the last 20 years, thousands of Christians have been killed, and the body count is just too high to ignore,” Thames said.

Trump announced in late October that he was designating Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” citing the widespread killings of Christians in the West African nation.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Oct. 31. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!”

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Following the announcement, Minaj said the president’s statement made her “feel a deep sense of gratitude.”

“Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other,” Minaj wrote.

On Tuesday, Minaj will address the United Nations on the issue of the persecution of Nigerian Christians.

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Waltz, who said he was a fan of the rapper, said on X, “I’m grateful she’s leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria, and I look forward to standing with her as we discuss the steps the President and his administration are taking to end the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters.”

Minaj replied, “Ambassador, I am so grateful to be entrusted with an opportunity of this magnitude. I do not take it for granted. It means more than you know. The Barbz and I will never stand down in the face of injustice. We’ve been given our influence by God. There must be a bigger purpose.”

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.