For many countries, rhetoric surrounding religious freedom does not match reality. For an example, look no further than Nigeria.

There, the country ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1993, agreeing that everyone has the right to both the expression and exercise of religion. Those same rights are guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution. Yet despite that, one-third of Nigeria’s states have Islamic Sharia courts that have imposed the death penalty for blasphemy.

That’s what happened to Yahaya Sharif-Aminu. A Sufi Muslim and musician who lived in the northern state of Kano, Yahaya posted on the WhatsApp social media platform lyrics to a song praising a prominent Muslim imam. In March 2020, authorities arrested Yahaya because, they charged, the lyrics elevated the imam, Ibrahim Niasse, “above the Prophet Muhammed.”

Protesters burned down Yahaya’s home and, without granting him legal representation, a Sharia court found him guilty of insulting the religious creed and sentenced him to death in March 2022.

Noting irregularities in that trial, a higher court ordered a retrial, but Yahaya appealed arguing that his case should be dismissed and the blasphemy law ruled unconstitutional. In August 2022, though, the Nigerian Court of Appeal upheld the blasphemy law and affirmed the retrial order.

Yahaya appealed again, this time to the Nigerian Supreme Court, which heard his case on Sept. 25, 2025. Yahaya remains imprisoned and Kano officials have vowed to execute him publicly if the Supreme Court rules against him.

Despite Nigeria’s international commitments and domestic constitutional guarantees, scenarios like these continue to occur. 13-year-old Umar Farouq was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020 for using “foul language” against God. Student Deborah Samuel, accused of blasphemy for a WhatsApp message, was hunted down and murdered in 2022. Mubarak Bala was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2022 for a Facebook post considered blasphemous.

In its annual reports, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends that the State Department designate “countries of particular concern” where “the government engages in or tolerates ‘particularly severe’ violations of religious freedom.” Nigeria has been on this list every year since 2009 and was on the commission’s “watch list” for six years before that.

Nigeria is not alone in failing to live out its claimed respect for religious freedom. The Pew Research Center, which has been tracking restrictions on religious freedom around the world since 2007, reported in 2024 that 35 countries that ratified the ICCPR still have “high” or “very high” restrictions on religious freedom. One-third of those countries previously voted for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which also calls for teaching and promoting a robust concept of religious freedom.

Even the Russian Constitution states: “Everyone shall be guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion, including the right to profess individually or collectively any religion or not to profess any religion, and freely to choose, possess and disseminate religious and other convictions and act in accordance with them.” Russia ratified the ICCPR in 1968 but has been on one of the U.S. Commission’s lists since 2009.

Yahaya has the able assistance of the Alliance Defense Fund International, tireless champions for not only the idea of religious freedom, but for making—and keeping—it a reality here and abroad. They note that 90% of Christians killed for their faith around the world are Nigerian and explain how the Nigerian Supreme Court’s decision in Yahaya’s case “has the potential to improve the human rights situation for the 200 million citizens of Nigeria, but also many in other countries.”

If the Nigerian Supreme Court rules in Yahaya’s favor, it could be a step toward a religious freedom reality that more closely matches their rhetoric.  Whatever your religious faith, let’s pray that happens.

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