Minaj made the remarks during a surprise appearance at AmericaFest on Sunday, responding to a question from Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk.
American rapper and global music star, Nicki Minaj, has said she and other Christians would no longer remain silent over what she described as the persecution and killing of Christians in Nigeria, insisting that “we will speak up for Christians wherever they are in this world.”
Minaj made the remarks during a surprise appearance at AmericaFest on Sunday, responding to a question from Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk.
Speaking on religious freedom and global persecution of Christians, the singer said many people in the United States take their freedom of worship for granted, while others around the world are forced to practise their faith in hiding.
“Well, and that brings me back to our great president and this administration and our great country that we take for granted that there right now in this world are people who cannot worship God as they please where they please,” Minaj said. “We take it for granted because we have it. We can’t even imagine not having that right.”
She urged Christians to remember and pray for those facing persecution, specifically referencing Nigeria.
“But every time we pray and fellowship, we have to remember the people that are right now in this world hiding to pray and fellowship and we have to pray for them,” she said. “And first of all, Nigeria is a place I’ve always loved. Someone very dear to me, my pastor, is Nigerian, and I have lots of Nigerian barbs.”
Minaj said reports of violence against Christians in Nigeria had deeply disturbed her.
“So hearing that people are being kidnapped and while they’re in church people are being kidnapped, people are being killed, brutalized. All because of their religion; that should spark outrage in the great America and that’s what it did,” she stated.
The artiste said she would no longer be intimidated into silence over the issue.
“And again, we’re not backing down anymore. We are not going to be silenced by the bullies anymore,” she said. “Okay, know that, hear that, receive that, bullies. We won’t be silenced ever again. We will speak up for Christians wherever they are in this world.”
Minaj also spoke at length about her Christian faith, tracing it back to her childhood in Trinidad and later years in New York, where she said church attendance shaped her life.
“Well, my relationship in God with God started… when I was a toddler in Trinidad,” she said, recalling how her grandmother would gather the children to pray whenever there was conflict in the house.
She explained that her faith deepened when she began attending church regularly as a pre-teen in New York.
“It changed everything. It changed my life for the better because I was going every week. I was hearing the word of God be preached and then I was going home and I was applying it to my life,” Minaj said, adding that she was baptised at about 13.
The rapper acknowledged that fame, career pressures and life’s demands sometimes pulled her away from fellowship, but said she recently felt a renewed closeness to God.
“So lately I’ve been feeling like… just going back to God and praying and talking to him,” she said. “And he said to me, where were you? Where have you been? I’ve been waiting on you.”
She said that renewed relationship had given her clarity and courage.
“Now it’s just, I’m thinking about, is God pleased with this? Not if the bullies and uglies are pleased, but if God is pleased,” Minaj said.
Addressing young people in the audience, she encouraged them to hold on to their faith and praised them for caring deeply at a young age.
“I want to say I’m proud of you guys,” she said. “This is major… it tells us that there’s hope for our future. So God bless you.”