US summit hears stark accounts of religious repression Rohingya Muslim woman and Nigerian Christian girl tell the Washington conference of their persecution Trending Boko Haram continues to attack Christian villages in Nigeria, murdering the inhabitants and kidnapping women and children. (Photo: AFP) Many people may not think about religious repression since it doesn't happen in the United States. For those who may argue that it does, then it doesn't happen on the scale and terror of those living in countries with authoritarian regimes. Testimony from survivors of religious repression punctuated the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington. One of the most compelling first-person accounts came from Joy Bishara, who grew up in the northern Nigeria town of Chibok, as a member of the Church of Christ.