by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, spiked
Western media have become apologists for violent Islamists.
Earlier this month, US president Donald Trump condemned Nigeria over the violent persecution of its Christian minority by Islamist groups like Boko Haram, Fulani militants and other violent actors. Trump called Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’, and he is not alone. This weekend, Pope Leo XIV picked out Nigeria as a nation in which Christians are being persecuted.
They’re right to be concerned. Getting a handle on the specific numbers of Christians affected is difficult. But according to a report issued in August by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), an African nongovernmental group that documents human-rights violations, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria in the first seven months of this year alone. Furthermore, Intersociety estimates that, between 2009 and 2023, at least 52,000 Christians have been killed and 18,500 have been abducted and are unlikely to have survived. Additionally, more than 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been attacked.
You would think that reports of the large-scale persecution and slaughter of Christians in Nigeria would have piqued the interest of Western media. But while there is certainly more attention on the plight of Nigerian Christians in recent weeks, too many outlets have responded cynically. They haven’t just questioned Trump’s claim – they have also refused to accept that Christians are really being persecuted at all.
The BBC is a case in point. ‘Are Christians being persecuted in Nigeria as Trump claims?’ ran a headline from the BBC’s ‘Global Disinformation Unit’. The article suggested Trump’s claims were simply a response to propaganda from prominent American Christians, including Republican senator Ted Cruz. The BBC concluded that the evidence of the killings was ‘difficult to verify’.
‘Difficult to verify’? The BBC has barely made an attempt to check whether the claim is true.