The U.S. government, especially under Joe Biden, imports oil from multiple countries that arrest, kill, or otherwise persecute Christians for their faith.
Of the sixteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), eight nations actively target Christians, according to International Christian Concern (ICC). Two more countries on the list are also scenes of persecution against Christians. That means that American money is enriching Islamic jihadis and tyrants who both produce oil and commit flagrant human rights abuses. Hopefully under Donald Trump, the United States will once again become energy independent, and no longer rely on OPEC for oil. Islam has always been a religion that spreads and survives by violence — its sacred texts condone murder and rape. That is no different now than it was a thousand years ago.
Nigeria is the most deadly country in the world for Christians, with over 60,000 Christians killed in over a decade of genocidal violence, largely driven by Islamic jihad. Many thousands more Nigerian Christians have been kidnapped or displaced. As for terror-sponsoring, Islamic Iran, Christians there can receive the death penalty if they are arbitrarily deemed to have “insult[ed] the Prophet” Muhammad. As of early 2024, the number of Iranian Christians arrested for their faith had gone up “sharply.” These are just two of OPEC’s member states.
[ICC] Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela allow ongoing discrimination or persecution of Christ followers within their borders. Despite this, the United States continues to import petroleum from these nations. In 2022, 11% of the U.S. petroleum imports came from Iraq and Saudi Arabia...
In addition to importing petroleum from these nations, the United States continues to trade with many of them. In 2022, the U.S. imported $11.2 million in goods from Iran, $5.4 billion in goods and services from Nigeria, and $24.9 billion in goods and services from Saudi Arabia. In 2023, the U.S. imported $3 billion in goods from Algeria.
ICC noted that Iraqi militias commit violence against Christians, and Algerian Christians can go to jail or be forced to pay a fine for evangelizing, which is called “shak[ing] the faith of a Muslim.” The United Arab Emirates hands Christians up to five years in prison if they are deemed to be “preaching against Islam,” Venezuela harasses religious groups, non-Muslim religious symbols, and public worship are illegal in Saudi Arabia, and Libya arrests Muslims who convert to Christianity while also banning speech “offensive to Muslims.”
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While ICC did not highlight Qatar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in its piece, the latter is too often a scene of jihadi violence against Christians, and Qatar bans evangelizing, even deporting some Christians who tried to spread the Gospel.
Of course, the Biden-Harris administration has directly funded Hamas-run Gaza and Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, as well as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, so it’s not really a surprise that it doesn’t care how many Christians in these OPEC countries are arrested or killed. But the incoming Trump-Vance administration certainly should take action to stop importing oil from nations that brutally enforce religious persecution.
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