***MEDIA ADVISORY***
For Immediate Release | March 1, 2019
Save the Persecuted Christians Hosts CPAC Panel Friday Afternoon
WASHINGTON—Hundreds of suspected Islamic Fulani gunman in Nigeria reportedly killed at least 32 people in a Christian area of north central Nigeria Tuesday.
A Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) panelist today at the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC), Dr. Oluwasayo “Sayo” Ajiboye, is available to the media to discuss an intensifying sectarian war few Americans know about. In February, while visiting a school he founded, Dr. Sayo was less than 20 miles from the site of this week’s massacre.
“This is clearly a religious war against Christians, unrecognized and actively denied by the West,” Dr. Sayo said Friday. “The media must finally report this for what it is so the violence will end. I visited with credible witnesses who affirm this is religiously motivated violence.”
The attack marks the latest in a series of anti-Christian attacks by Sharia-supremecists in Nigeria, where two of the world’s most dangerous terrorist groups, Boko Haram (affiliated with the Islamic State) and Fulani jihadists, operate with what many observers say is impunity by the Buhari regime.
Dr. Sayo, a Nigerian native and American citizen, will explain the ongoing conflict and the ramifications for the future of Christians in Nigeria and the religious conflict raging throughout Africa. He is president of Redeemer’s Bible College and Seminary in Texas and founder of Mission Africa International.
At CPAC today, Save the Persecuted Christians is hosting a panel of experts to bring attention to the plight of at least 300 million persecuted Christians worldwide and how Americans can help.
WHO: Save the Persecuted Christians
WHAT: Conservative Political Action Conference expert panel event and “The People of the Cross” exhibit
WHERE: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, 201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745
WHEN: 3-4 p.m. Friday, March 1, panel titled “Persecution of Christians: An Existential Threat to Freedom and How to Defeat it,” featuring:
- Frank Gaffney, moderator and STPC president
- Dominic Sputo, author of “Heirloom Love: Authentic Christianity in this Age of Persecution”
- Dr. Sayo Abijoye of Mission Africa International
- Dede Laugesen, STPC executive director
- Faith McDonnell of the Institute on Religion and Democracy
WHY: To share information about the plight of 300 million persecuted Christians worldwide
HOW: Learn more here.
Also during the CPAC panel discussion, Save the Persecuted Christians will display “The People of the Cross,” a moving exhibit that features images, facts and quotes from recent news stories about the persecution of Christians in multiple countries, such as North Korea, where Christians are tortured or worse; Syria, where Christian girls and women have been sold into sex slavery; East Africa, where terrorists are exterminating Christians with genocidal intent; and China, where Communists are increasingly hostile to people of faith and churches are demolished. A majority of the countries highlighted in the banners are high on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List.
Save the Persecuted Christians is a grassroots movement to save lives and save souls, educating the public on anti-Christian violence and enlist their help in: supporting those harmed for their faith in Jesus; holding those responsible accountable; and securing significant penalties on state and non-state persecutors of Christians.
According to Aid to the Church in Need, which released its biannual report on Religious Freedom in the World in November, over 300 million Christians experience persecution. According to Open Doors, 245 million Christians are victims of high to extreme levels of persecution (i.e., torture, rape, sex-slavery, expulsion, murder and genocide), an increase of 14 percent over 2018. Open Doors also estimates 1 in 9 of the world’s Christians experience persecution and that every month: 345 Christians are killed, often in public and without regard to gender or age; 219 Christians are abducted and imprisoned indefinitely without trial; and 106 churches are demolished.
Because most of these crimes are not covered in the media, Save the Persecuted Christians developed a dedicated news aggregator—www.ChristianPersecutionNews.com—to capture current instances of persecution and to provide readers an easy way to share these heartbreaking stories with others.
With so much of the world’s Christian population being attacked, imprisoned and/or exiled for their beliefs, the need has never been greater for the sort of grassroots campaign STPC’s SaveUs Movement is working to foster. Its efforts are modeled after a miraculously successful one that helped free another population suffering from heavy persecution—Soviet Jews—by penalizing those in the Kremlin responsible for such repression. Through this movement, Save the Persecuted Christians endeavors to provide American policymakers with the popular support they need to effect real change worldwide and alleviate systemically the suffering being experienced by so many of those following Christ.
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To interview a Save the Persecuted Christians representative, contact Deborah Hamilton, Media@HamiltonStrategies.com, 610.584.1096, ext. 102, or Patrick Benner, ext. 104.