The global persecution of Christians has reached unprecedented levels: “260 million Christians experience high levels of persecution” around the world, notes the recently published World Watch List 2020, an annual report that ranks the top 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted for their faith.
Additionally, “2,983 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. On average, that’s 8 Christians killed every day for their faith”: “9,488 churches or Christian buildings were attacked,” and “3,711 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned.” (Note: All quotes in this article are from the WWL 2020 report.)
Dictatorial paranoia continues to make North Korea (#1) the worst nation. Christians found there are instantly “deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot.”
Otherwise, and as has been the case in all statistics and reports on the global persecution of Christians, not only does “Islamic oppression” remain the chief “source of persecution” faced by Christians in 7 of the absolute ten worst nations, but 38 of the 50 nations composing the list are either Muslim majority or have a sizeable Muslim population.
The overwhelming majority of these Muslim nations are governed by some form of shari‘a (Islamic law). It is either directly enforced by government or society or, more frequently, both, though societies—family members in particular—tend to be more zealous in its application. Brief summaries of the seven Muslim nations making the top ten follow:
> Afghanistan (#2) is “an Islamic society where Christianity exists in secret.” Not only is it “illegal for an Afghan person to leave Islam,” but family members are often first to attack or kill them.
> In Somalia (#3), “[c]onversion to Christianity is regarded as a betrayal”; “ family members and clan leaders will harass, intimidate and even kill” converts. Al Shabaab, “the youth,” an Islamic group, slaughters Christians “on the spot when discovered.”
> In Libya (#4), “There is no freedom of speech, no equal treatment of Christians, no recognition of the church and no churches being built.”
Read the rest from Raymond Ibrahim HERE.
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