{"id":11376,"date":"2019-07-20T21:53:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T21:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=5612"},"modified":"2019-07-20T21:53:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T21:53:31","slug":"religious-freedom-award-united-states-honor-82-year-old-nigerian-imam-abdullahi-abubakar-who-saved-over-260-christians-from-herdsmen-deadly-attack-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-host-the-first-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/religious-freedom-award-united-states-honor-82-year-old-nigerian-imam-abdullahi-abubakar-who-saved-over-260-christians-from-herdsmen-deadly-attack-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-host-the-first-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AWARD: United States honor 82 year old Nigerian Imam ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR who saved over 260 Christians from Herdsmen deadly attack *Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo host the first-ever International Religious Freedom Awards * Award celebrates extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from around the world *Other award winners: Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan (Sudan), Ivanir dos Santos (Brazil), William and Pascale Warda (Iraq) and Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud (Cyprus) * \u201cImam Abdullahi\u2019s courage in the face of imminent danger and his history of outreach across religious divides demonstrates his lifelong commitment to promoting interfaith understanding and peace\u201d-U.S. STATE Department * ‘We awarded Abubakar the Nigerian Star in recognition of achievement and service to Nigeria and Nigerians. He is a peace builder who put his faith into action by securing the lives of people of other religions.’-U.S. Embassy in Nigeria BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM\nAWARD:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

United States\nhonor 82 year old Nigerian Imam ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR who saved over 260\nChristians from Herdsmen deadly attack<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo host the first-ever\nInternational Religious Freedom Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Award celebrates extraordinary advocates of religious freedom\nfrom around the world<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Other award winners: Mohamed\nYosaif Abdalrahan (Sudan), Ivanir dos Santos (Brazil), William and\nPascale Warda (Iraq) and Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud (Cyprus)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* \u201cImam\nAbdullahi\u2019s courage in the face of imminent danger and his history\nof outreach across religious divides demonstrates his lifelong\ncommitment to promoting interfaith understanding and peace\u201d-U.S.\nSTATE Department<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* ‘We awarded Abubakar the Nigerian Star in recognition of\nachievement and service to Nigeria and Nigerians. He is a peace\nbuilder who put his faith into action by securing the lives of people\nof other religions.’-U.S. Embassy in Nigeria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU\nCHIEF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HONOR HAS COME FOR A NIGERIAN MUSLIM IMAN, ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR\nWHO PLACED HIS LIFE ON LINE TO SAVE OVER 260 CHRISTIANS FROM THE\nBLOOD-THIRSTY BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS ATTACK IN PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.\nUnited States specially recognized outstanding men and women across\nthe world who go out of their ways to save other human beings in any\ninter-religious crisis. <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view of this remarkable feat, the United States has conferred\nReligious Freedom Award on Imam Abdullahi Abubakar, who saved\nhundreds of Christians during an attack from suspected herdsmen. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first-ever International Religious Freedom Awards ceremony was\nhosted by Secretary Pompeo on last week in the United States. The\naward honours extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from\naround the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abubakar\nreceived the award alongside Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan (Sudan),\nIvanir dos Santos (Brazil), William and Pascale Warda (Iraq) and\nSalpy Eskidjian Weiderud (Cyprus).\u201cImam\nAbdullahi\u2019s courage in the face of imminent danger and his history\nof outreach across religious divides demonstrates his lifelong\ncommitment to promoting interfaith understanding and peace,\u201d US\nState Department said in a brief profile of the imam published on its\nwebsite. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n84years old Chief Imam of Nghar village in Gashish District in\nPlateau State was widely hailed after he hid some would-be victims of\nherdsmen violence in his mosque on June 23, 2018.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abubakar hid the women in his house and after that, took the men\ninto the mosque and hid them there. The assailants, however, caught\nup with the Imam, forcefully demanding that he release those who were\nChristians in the mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the cleric said he deceived the bandits that all those in the\nmosque were Muslims and upon hearing this, the attackers left him and\ncontinued with their killing elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a tweet in May, the US Embassy in Nigeria said it awarded\nAbubakar the Nigerian Star, \u201cin recognition of achievement and\nservice to Nigeria and Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Embassy described the Imam as a \u201cpeace builder\u201d who put\nhis \u201cfaith into action\u201d by securing the lives of people of other\nreligions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AWARD: United States honor 82 year old Nigerian Imam ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR who saved over 260 Christians from Herdsmen deadly attack *Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo host the first-ever International Religious Freedom Awards * Award celebrates extraordinary advocates of religious freedom from around the world *Other award winners: Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan (Sudan), Ivanir dos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[129,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-11376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-nigeria-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}