After spending years fighting prosecution over his reporting on the persecution of Nigerian Christians, journalist Luka Binniyat is warning Americans not to take their religious liberty for granted. Having witnessed deadly attacks by Islamic militants firsthand, Binniyat says the violence and oppression he has documented in Nigeria should serve as a warning to the United States.

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From The Daily Wire:

“You should not allow Islam to gain root in America. They’ll come there with values that are not your own, and even if they are a minority, they will eventually try to enforce their own religion, their own beliefs over the community,” the 60-year-old Binniyat told The Daily Wire in an interview. “In Nigeria — here in the Muslim-dominated areas — Christians do not have rights.”

The warning is personal for Binniyat, who has seen firsthand the violent implementation of Sharia law. Northern Nigeria is largely Islamic, and the southern part of the country is Christian. The middle, where Binniyat has spent most of his time reporting on, is divided. What he has witnessed, he told The Daily Wire, is genocide.

“When you select a group of people for extermination, based on their race, based on their belief, or based on their ideology, you select them for mass murder. That is what genocide is all about,” he said. “That is what we’re experiencing.”

Binniyat’s reporting came at a significant personal cost. In 2021, he published an article quoting a Nigerian politician who accused an official of covering up attacks against Christians. After the official complained of defamation and the politician disputed the quotation, authorities charged Binniyat under a Nigerian cybercrime law.

The prosecution stretched on for nearly five years, during which Binniyat spent more than 80 days imprisoned. He described being confined with dozens of inmates in an insect-infested cell where prisoners were forced to use buckets as toilets.

With assistance from Alliance Defending Freedom International, Binniyat eventually prevailed. In May 2026, the Federal High Court in Kaduna issued its written decision finding “no evidence to prove the essential elements of the alleged offense” and describing the evidence against him as “manifestly unreliable.”

His case had also attracted international attention from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and other organizations. Binniyat credited international pressure with helping secure his freedom.

The persecution he has spent his career documenting continues to draw international concern. Thousands of Nigerian Christians are reportedly killed each year amid violence involving Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa, and militant Fulani groups. In 2025, the Trump administration designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern over religious freedom violations, increasing U.S. scrutiny of the nation.

For Binniyat, the statistics are inseparable from scenes he has personally witnessed. He recalled arriving after an attack on a Christian wedding and helping residents recover more than 20 burned bodies, including those of women and children, for burial in a mass grave.

Now free, Binniyat says he intends to continue documenting attacks against Christians. He also has a message for Americans who have never experienced the kind of religious violence he has witnessed.

“Americans should not take the liberty and the freedom which they are enjoying now for granted,” he warned, urging Americans to protect their faith, culture, and values.

Binniyat’s experiences remind us that religious liberty is precious—and that millions around the world do not enjoy the freedoms Americans often take for granted. Let’s pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria, for courage and protection for journalists exposing their suffering, and for wisdom as America confronts ideologies and movements hostile to religious freedom. May we also faithfully steward the freedoms God has entrusted to us while showing Christ’s truth and love to those of every faith.

Share your prayers for persecuted Christians in Nigeria and for the preservation of religious liberty in America below.

(Excerpt from The Daily Wire. Photo Credit: seechung/Getty Images)