Paul Marshall, Director of RFI’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team, was recently interviewed by Msgr. Kevin Sullivan on JustLove, the weekly radio program of Catholic Charities, to discuss the worldwide state of religious freedom. He addressed religiously motivated violence across the globe, especially against Christians.

When asked about the state of religious freedom across the world, Marshall said, “Religious violence is increasing, generally. It varies from place to place, but in many places the government does not effectively punish people who do this or effectively protect people, and so that’s ongoing.”

Marshall cited examples of this in China, India, Iran, Sudan, and most recently, Ukraine: 

In the areas which the Russians have taken over in Ukraine, they’ve been basically seeking to eradicate all the church organizations except for the Russian Orthodox. When I say “eradicate,” I don’t mean killing them all, but taking away licenses, stopping functioning.

He said that the country that is currently most concerning in this regard, however, is Nigeria, as “what is happening there is so horrendous and so ignored.” 

Marshall continued that it is to the United States’ shame that Nigeria was removed from the State Department’s designated list of Countries of Particular Concern regarding religious freedom this year, with no explanation – even as the death toll for Christians, as well as some Muslims, numbers in the thousands. 

“The Nigerian government is ineffective, hostile and corrupt,” he stated. “They have been exceedingly passive, they don’t seem to do anything at all.” 

Listen to the full interview here: “Experts Discuss Inflation and Religious Persecution.”