Kerby Anderson

Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. The phrase used most often to describe what is happening to Christians in Nigeria is “pure genocide.” Nigeria is a country divided. The north is predominantly Muslim. The South has many more Christians. In the north and elsewhere, Christians have been killed and maimed in what Open Doors calls “religious cleansing.” Muslims are attempting to eradicate Christianity from the country. The greatest threat to Christians in the past has been from Boko Haram. Now an even greater threat has come from radical Muslim Fulani herdsmen who have murdered more than 6,000 people (mostly women and children). Unfortunately, the world’s media has generally ignored this human rights tragedy or even portrayed it as a land conflict between community groups. Christian leaders in the country assure us this is not a “farmers/herdsmen clash” but a targeted attempt to rid the land of any Christians. Raymond Ibrahim says, “Christians are the most persecuted people on earth.” You can read what he says in Jihad Watch or see his Prager University video. He believes the mainstream media often ignores the genocide in Nigeria and other countries because it doesn’t fit the narrative of radical Muslims fighting back against colonial imperialism. Even attempts to educate the Christian community through Twitter and other social media platforms are met with a backlash from Muslim apologists. It has been encouraging to see that the Nigerian president and President Trump have spoken out on this issue a few months ago. And there are more news articles appearing in some media outlets, like the Christian Post and Breitbart News. The world eventually took note of genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s, but governments did too little/too late to stop the massacre of one million Tutsi people. We cannot ignore what is happening in Nigeria today.