The genocidal killing of Christians in Nigeria by Islamic extremists has been blatantly ignored by the Western Media, said talk show host Bill Maher.

Maher, a self-proclaimed atheist, made the statement on a recent broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” CBN reports.

“I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria,” Maher said in his broadcast on Friday, September 27, 2025. “They’ve killed over a hundred thousand since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. 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.”

He added that the mainstream media is obsessed with Gaza and is ignoring the slaughter of Christians in an African nation.

“[T]he fact that this issue has not gotten on people’s radar, it’s pretty amazing,” Maher noted. “If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck; you are in a bubble.”

“Where are the kids protesting this”, Maher also wondered?

According to a report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (ISCL), a nongovernmental agency based in Nigeria, there are 22 Muslim extremist groups in the country.

ISCL stated that they are “seeking to obliterate Christianity and Indigenous cultural heritage and impose Sultanate In Nigeria.”

The report said that over the past 16 years, these extremists have killed 125,000 Christians. They have also kidnapped 600 church leaders and destroyed over 19,000 churches.

These extremists have also killed thousands of moderate Muslims who do not hold similar radical views, ISCL added.

At the end of August, Christianity Today reports that three pastors were kidnapped in Nigeria:

• On August 24, 2025, Pastor Friday Adehi was kidnapped after a church service. He pastors the Christian Evangelical Fellowship church in Itobe, located in North Central Nigeria.
• Three days later, Pastor Audu Issa James was kidnapped by four gunmen at his home in the village of Ekati located in North Central Nigeria.
• Then on August 28, pastor Ayodeji Akesinro was kidnapped at his home in Upenme, located in Southern Nigeria.

More recently, Barnabas Aid stated that the wife of a Christian pastor was kidnapped in Nasarawa State located in Central Nigeria on Sept 21. Patience Nasamu, along with a member of the congregation, were kidnapped at the family home after the Sunday service. Her husband, Pastor Samuel Nasamu, was away praying for a sick member of their congregation.

Nigeria has a population of 236 million people. Just over half (51%) are Christian and live in the southern half of the country. The Muslims occupy the Northern half.

According to The Voice of the Martyrs, Islamic extremist groups such as Boko Haram and Fulani herders are trying to wipe out the Christian presence in Northern and more recently central Nigeria. Their publicly stated goal is to set up an Islamic Caliphate.