Bill Maher Denounces Media for Ignoring Christian Persecution in Nigeria

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Comedian, political commentator, and television host Bill Maher criticized the media for failing to cover the ongoing persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

“Nigeria, the fact that this issue has not gotten on people’s radar, it’s pretty amazing. If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble,” Maher said during a panel discussion with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who's also running for governor of the Palmetto State, The Christian Post reported.

“I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram,” he said. “This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.”

“Where are the kids protesting this?” he asked. 

According to USA Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List, Nigeria comes in at number 7 on its list of top 50 countries where Christian persecution is most rampant.

“The measure of anti-Christian violence in the country is already at the maximum possible under World Watch List methodology,” the report stated.

 

In Nigeria alone, 3,100 (69%) Christians were killed for their faith out of the 4,476 who were killed worldwide during the reporting period.

The report states that in the north-central region of Nigeria, which has a higher population of Christians compared to the northeast and northwest, Islamic extremist Fulani militias assault agricultural communities, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, predominantly Christians.

Christians in the country’s northern states are targets of raids, sexual violence, and roadblock killings by Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the splinter group Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), among others, while the federal government in that region is scant. 

Additionally, a new jihadist group Lakurawa has emerged in the northwest and is affiliated with the expansionist al-Qaeda insurgency Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, or JNIM, originating in Mali.

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Vivien Killilea/Stringer 

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.