‘They Roasted the Pastor and His Wife Alive in the Church”

The David Horowitz Freedom Center spent a lot of time bringing attention to the Muslim genocide of Christians in Nigeria. Before his death, Charlie Kirk spread our work around, and the Trump administration fortunately listened. And yet it also unfortunately adapted a false narrative in which the tremendous genocide of Christians was just the work of the local Al Qaeda. And that’s simply not true. These are the broader work of the local Muslim ‘Fulani’ population.

This excellent account captures some of what’s really going on.

Driving through the vast, scorched landscape, I hear the words that have followed me all day. ‘They roasted the pastor and his wife alive in the church. We heard their screams.’

Bricks lie scattered in the scrub. Concrete blocks jut from the earth like jagged teeth. Roofs have collapsed inward.

And then come the churches.

Burned-out shell after burned-out shell. Crosses broken. Windows blown through. One has been gutted by fire, another reduced to rubble.

It’s as though someone has tried to erase every visible sign of Christianity from this land.

For more than two decades, this stretch of Nigeria’s Middle Belt – the faultline where the largely Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south – has convulsed in recurring waves of bloodshed…

In the face of all this, calling the violence here merely a ‘farmer–herder conflict’, as government officials try to do, begins to sound like a diplomatic euphemism. It’s true that land is in high demand and grazing routes are contested. But that explanation alone feels inadequate when you witness for yourself the ruins of so many churches – and hear the stories of so many slaughtered Christians.

We arrive in the village of Gwet, parking by a collection of abandoned houses, destroyed fields and another ruined church. In truth, we’re not exactly welcome. The people who committed these atrocities – Muslim Fulani herdsmen – can be seen in the distance: the new, unchallenged masters of this once devoutly Christian area.

Yes, Boko Haram attacks and kills Christians, but much like ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Hamas in Israel, or the Al Qaeda regime in Syria, t’s just the tip of the spear for the larger genocidal campaign by a Sunni Muslim group against another population.

The pattern has been identical across the years and locations. Night raids. Armed, baying men descending on sleeping Christian communities. Houses torched; men, women and children cut down or slaughtered in their beds; churches set ablaze. By dawn, whole settlements are smoking ruins.

‘Jonas’ is 29 years old. He cradles his metal machete like a comfort blanket. ‘For firewood,’ he says, ‘but also’, he adds, looking at the Fulani in the distance, ‘for protection.’ We stand in the blackened remains of his family home. This is the first time he’s dared to come back since May 16, 2023: the day his world was destroyed.

He starts to remember. Early that morning, Fulani families had been seen nearby gathering cattle and belongings, moving in unusually large numbers. Within hours they stormed his village screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ and calling the Christians living there infidels. They fired into homes, chased families out and burned everything they could. They were methodical in their savagery. ‘We were terrified,’ he tells me. ‘We ran and hid in the bush and then fled.’

Ten people once lived in his home: his parents, wife and younger brothers. They were farmers. Now the Fulani cattle graze the family’s field beyond their ruined church.

‘The churches are always their main target,’ he says. It is an attack at the heart of their faith…

In 48 blood-spattered hours between December 23 and Christmas Day, mobs attacked at least 17 rural communities in the Plateau areas of Bokkos and Barkin Ladi, murdering at least 200 and injuring 500 more. Although no group claimed responsibility, residents insist it was the Fulani.

They also insist the date was deliberate. In the days before the attacks, warnings had circulated: ‘Be careful how you celebrate Christmas – or you may not celebrate at all.’

There’s plenty more there and I encourage you to read all of it, but the bottom line is to remember this is not just ‘Al Qaeda’.

This is a genocidal campaign by a Muslim population against a Christian population. This is how Islam expands. Its borders are always red because they bleed with the blood of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and all non-Muslims.

It’s not just a matter of tracking down a few terrorists, it’s about facing the reality that this is what Islam is.

And it’s not just at work in Nigeria or in Africa, it’s at work in Europe and America.