(LifeSiteNews) — Atheist comedian Bill Maher expressed sympathy for suffering Christians in Nigeria during a recent episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher” on HBO.

Maher, who is ethnically Jewish but raised Catholic, made the surprising remarks last week while talking with GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace.

“The fact that this issue has not gotten on people’s radar — it’s pretty amazing,” he said. “They are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches.”

NEW: Bill Maher rips the media for ignoring the slaughtering of Christians in Nigeria, claims the media is ignoring it because the “Jews aren’t involved.”

Over 7000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria alone this year.

Since 2009, 125,000 Christians have been slaughtered, &… pic.twitter.com/yujzVBfNtF

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 27, 2025

Maher continued: “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.”

As noted by LifeSite contributor Jonathan Van Maren, Christians in Nigeria have faced sporadic persecution since the 1950s, but since 2000 have seen wave after wave of violence that has essentially become a slow-motion genocide.

Persecution of Christians in Nigeria began to spike after 1999, when 12 northern states adopted Sharia law. The rise of the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2009 marked a dramatic escalation as well. Famously, the group kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014; 87 of them are still listed as “missing.”

Recent attacks in the country have seen the abduction and even murder of Catholic priests and seminarians. In a July press release, the Diocese of Auchi in Edo State reported that several gunmen attacked the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, killing one security guard and kidnapping three seminarians.

The incident marks the second time the seminary was attacked within a year. On October 27, 2024, assailants attacked the seminary and attempted to abduct two seminarians. In a courageous act, Fr. Thomas Oyode, the seminary’s rector, offered himself in their place. As a result, Fr. Oyode was held captive for a total of 11 days before being released.

In August, Islamic militants attacked a Christian village, killing three and injuring several more, this just two months after Islamists massacred over 200 people in the same area. The assault targeted a community which was nearly 100 percent Christian and consisted mostly of subsistence farmers.

Findings published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) highlighted many of the state-sponsored attacks on Christians in the country.

The situation in Nigeria has deteriorated so much that the 2025 Global Christian Relief (GCR) Red List report named Nigeria as one of the most dangerous places for Christians in the entire world. The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law reported in spring 2023 that over 50,000 have been killed in the country for their Christian faith since 2009.

Bishop Joseph Strickland, former bishop of Tyler, Texas, issued a statement on his Substack blog in June about the situation. He noted that his heart was “weighed down by sorrow and righteous anger” before urging fellow bishops to speak up lest they be “complicit in the silence.”

“I call on the Nigerian government to fulfill its sacred duty: to protect the innocent and punish the wicked. Justice delayed is justice denied. And when Christians are slaughtered in their hundreds with impunity, it is not only a failure of governance – it is a scandal before Heaven,” His Excellency said. “I call on governments around the world, especially in the West, to open their eyes to this ongoing persecution. Christian blood is being spilled in Nigeria with alarming regularity – and yet, the world’s conscience remains dormant.”

In its 2025 report, the USCIRF urged the U.S. government to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern.” It also disappointingly noted that “the Nigerian government remains slow or, at times, appears unwilling to respond to this violence, creating an environment of impunity for the attackers.”