The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has criticised a proposed move by lawmakers in the United States Congress to impose sanctions on certain Nigerian Muslim leaders and organisations, describing the initiative as unfair and one-sided.
Last week, five US legislators introduced a bill seeking visa restrictions and asset freezes against former Kano State Governor and leader of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, as well as the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, among others.
Reacting in a statement published Thursday and titled, “US sanctions on Muslim figures in Nigeria ‘lopsided’ – MURIC,” the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, argued that the proposed sanctions ignore alleged abuses committed by officials in Southern Nigeria and leaders of Christian militia groups in the North Central region.
According to him, the US action unfairly singles out Muslims.
“We take the decision of the US Congress to sanction Muslims alone with a pinch of salt. It amounts to scapegoating, preconceived judgement and crusade-brandishing,” Akintola said.
“Coming to Nigeria with the avowed aim of protecting Christians carries with it the implications of coming to promote Christianity, coming to deter the prosecution of Christian criminals who are behind the killing of hundreds of Muslim travellers in Plateau State, coming to undermine Islam, coming to persecute Muslims and coming to encourage Muslim haters.”
Akintola maintained that extremism is not limited to one religious group and warned against what he described as selective accountability.
He stated that both Muslim and Christian extremists have committed acts of terror, insisting that any international sanctions regime must be “comprehensive and unbiased, not selective and lopsided.”
“As a Muslim human rights group that has been in operation for 32 years (since 1994), MURIC has records of proven acts of inhumanity, discrimination, marginalization, denial of religious freedom and other acts of violation of rights committed by individual Christian state actors in Southern Nigeria as well as criminal Christian militia groups, and we are prepared to present them to the US or the United Nations or any other international audience if given the opportunity,” he said.
He further alleged that Christian militia groups in North Central Nigeria have been responsible for large-scale killings over the years.
“For the avoidance of doubts, we assert clearly, unequivocally and emphatically that Christian militia groups of North Central Nigeria who are well known by the state governments have killed thousands of Muslims in the past decades.
“If, therefore, Northern Muslims are being marked for sanctions, present and past governors and government officials of North Central Nigeria who have funded, enabled and protected Christian terrorists in the zone deserve conspicuous spaces on the list.”
The MURIC leader also accused US authorities of listening predominantly to Christian voices from Nigeria while sidelining Muslim perspectives.
“We nurse the suspicion that even US officials have always preferred to listen to Nigerian Christians without seeking to hear from Muslims to balance the stories and for justice, equity and fairness.
“This explains why the US Congress has always been anxious to invite Christian activists and clergymen from Nigeria without inviting their Muslim counterparts. This attitude is contrary to the well known principle of justice (audi alteram partem i.e. hear from the other side),” he said.
Akintola expressed concern over what he described as worsening conditions for Muslims in parts of Nigeria.
“As at today, the 12th of February, 2026, we nurse the palpable fear… Muslims have become endangered species in Nigeria. For the world to believe the US is not on a recycled crusade, the US needs to sanction the following: Southern Nigeria governors and their government officials who go out of their way to deprive Muslims of their Allah-given fundamental human rights; those who disenfranchise Muslims by denying them voters cards on account of their dressing as Muslims; those who defy court judgements and violate the rights of the Muslim girl child; those who compel Muslim students to attend church services or face expulsion from school on university campuses; those who deny Muslims access to public health, education services, national identity cards, driving licences, international travelling passports, etc by telling women to remove their hijab and the men to remove their caps or turbans; those who deny employment opportunities to eminently qualified Muslim applicants on account of their being Muslims as well as those who marginalise Muslims in political appointments in Nigeria’s Southern states where Muslims are the majority (particularly in four Yoruba states of the South West: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun).”
He urged the US not to ignore what he termed daily rights violations against Muslims in the country.
“The US must not turn its eyes away from all these atrocities committed by Nigerian Christians against their Muslim compatriots on a daily basis, even up till this morning because we receive reports of these human rights abuses against Muslims everyday. Education, health and virtually all vital sectors have been occupied by Nigerian Christians in Southern Nigeria and weaponized to commit grave human rights offences against Muslims.
“Nigerian Muslims have no reason to antagonise America. Neither has there ever been any declared hostility between the US and Nigerian Muslims. It is also true that apart from millions of Americans who are Muslims, hundreds of Nigerian Muslims make their living in the US. It is therefore in our mutual interest to avoid tension.
“This is why the US needs to do more findings before labeling or sanctioning law-abiding and peace-loving Nigerian Muslims. Boko Haram and ISIS terrorists should not be given the chance to rejoice at having succeeded in killing moderate Muslims and at the same time getting America to sanction them!”
