When a liberal talk-show host finally punches through the establishment bubble and names a truth the mainstream has been ducking, conservatives ought to celebrate the rare moment of clarity. Bill Maher used his HBO platform to call out what he called the systematic slaughter of Christians in Nigeria and to accuse our media of looking the other way, a blunt wake-up call the American public needed to hear.
Maher didn’t whisper his facts — he cited staggering figures that have been reported by watchdogs: well over one hundred thousand Christians killed since 2009 and thousands of churches burned. Those numbers come from civil-society investigations that have tracked the carnage for years, and while exact totals can be disputed, the pattern of escalating anti-Christian violence in large parts of Nigeria is undeniable to anyone willing to look.
What makes Maher’s critique so damning is his indictment of media hypocrisy: there was a tidal wave of street activism and outrage elsewhere, yet the deaths of Christian families and the razing of churches in Africa barely made a ripple. That silence is not neutral; it is a moral choice that betrays Americans’ professed values and reveals a media class comfortable with selective compassion.
Independent measures back up the basic claim that Nigeria has become exceptionally deadly for Christians: Open Doors’ World Watch List shows Nigeria as the epicenter of faith-related killings in recent years, with thousands murdered for reasons tied to their religion. These are not whispers from the fringes — reputable international monitors document the trend, and it should drive policy, not partisan talking points.
To be fair to the record, Nigeria’s government and allied commentators angrily reject the “genocide” label and accuse foreign voices of inflaming tensions for political ends, arguing the conflicts are complex, with ethnic, economic and criminal dimensions. Those denials should not be a shield against scrutiny; a responsible U.S. policy posture demands transparency, independent investigation, and protections for religious minorities, not reflexive defense of foreign elites who are unwilling or unable to safeguard their citizens.
Local watchdogs like Intersociety have pressed Western governments to act — urging designations, sanctions, and targeted pressure where complicit actors are identified — and those asks should be taken seriously by American policymakers who care about religious freedom. If human rights and religious liberty mean anything, then the United States should use every peaceful tool at its disposal to protect innocent Christians and other vulnerable communities in Nigeria from being erased.
This isn’t a parochial plea for one faith; it’s a patriotic demand that our country live up to its principles of defending the oppressed and calling out injustice wherever it hides. Stop tolerating the media’s selective outrage, stop outsourcing our moral compass to elites who pick favorites, and start pressuring leaders — at home and abroad — to stop the slaughter. Hardworking Americans should insist on truth, accountability, and action for the forgotten persecuted millions.
