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Countless Christians around the world are persecuted and forgotten
One out of every seven Christians experiences persecution, according to Pope Francis. And in many countries violence, discrimination and other human rights abuses are increasing.
In a report released last week by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2022-24, the Catholic charity claims that Christian persecution has significantly worsened in most of the 18 countries in its survey, from Nicaragua in Latin America to Myanmar in the Far East to Burkina Faso in West Africa.
With the world distracted by savage wars in Israel and Ukraine and the American election, persecution of Christians can easily go unnoticed. But as Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University and a former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has noted:
“Christians are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Wherever they are persecuted, the right to religious freedom for all is jeopardized. Wherever they are harassed or jailed, detained or discriminated against, tortured or murdered, governments perpetrate or tolerate abuses against others as well.”
Christians are not the only ones who suffer for their faith. Perhaps the worst treated religious minority in the world at the moment is China’s Muslim Uighurs. According to the Council for Foreign Relations, “The Chinese government has imprisoned more than one million people since 2017 and subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labor, and forced sterilizations.”
However, the difficulties that Christians face are seldom highlighted in the Western media, perhaps because journalists feel that they are not newsworthy, or even that they have brought it on themselves because they provoked people with their proselytising activities. The ACN report shows that violence against Christians is mostly unprovoked and motivated by sectarian prejudice. But it takes different forms around the globe.
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Murder and mayhem in sub-Saharan Africa
ACN says that militant Islam has moved from the Middle East into African countries where it has been responsible for many atrocities, including the slaughter of Christians. “While jihadi militantism persisted in pockets of the Middle East such as Idlib, Syria, state authorities in the region made significant strides in clamping down on violent Islamist groups. By contrast, in parts of Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique and elsewhere, Christians were terrorised by extremist violence.”
It goes on to explain: “Mass migration of Christian communities, triggered by militant Islamist attacks, has destabilised and disenfranchised them, raising questions about the long- term survival of the Church in key regions.”
One extreme example of Islamist terrorism in Nigeria occurred last year on Christmas Eve. The report describes the carnage:
“Hundreds of suspected Fulani militants murdered more than 300 people and injured hundreds more in coordinated attacks on more than 30 villages near Bokkos town in Nigeria’s Plateau State on Christmas Eve 2023. The extremists also burnt down entire villages and destroyed food supplies, aggravating the region’s ongoing food crisis.”
According to Father Andrew Dewan, a spokesman for the local Catholic diocese, no one had been charged over these crimes by July. “We are used to this charade,” he complained. “Attackers are often arrested and later set free. Politicians give speeches that contain no grain of truth. They make promises and pledges of rehabilitating and reinstating all those displaced back to their ancestral homes, but that is often not the case.”
Mob violence and forced marriages in Pakistan
In Pakistan, girls and women belong to religious minorities are often abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and compelled to marry one of their captors. “Girls as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law,” United Nations experts said last year.
The threat of being accused of blaspheming against Islam hangs over Hindu, Sikh, and Christian minorities. In June a 73-year-old Christian died in Punjab province after being beaten by a huge mob who had heard rumours that he had desecrated the Qur’an. His home and shoe factory were burned down. Reports suggested the incident was motivated by business rivalry and personal disputes. The violence triggered a mass exodus of Christians from the neighbourhood.
Such incidents are not unusual. According to USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck. “The country’s draconian blasphemy law signals to society that alleged blasphemers deserve severe punishment, which emboldens private individuals and groups to take matters into their own hands.”
Government repression in Nicaragua
For the first time in the 18 years of ACN reports, Nicaragua is featured. Although the country is about 45 percent Catholic, its left-leaning government has been expelling clergy, closing Catholic institutions, and restricting worship. Last year and this year, dozens of bishops, priests and seminarians have been arrested, imprisoned and forced into exile. The regime has even banned street processions during Holy Week.
According to a USCIRF update published in June:
“President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo use laws on cybercrimes, financial crimes, legal registration for not-for-profit organizations, and sovereignty and self-determination to persecute religious communities and religious freedom advocates. Nicaragua’s government continues to repress the Catholic Church for its human rights advocacy by arbitrarily arresting, imprisoning, and exiling clergy and laypeople and shuttering and seizing the property of Catholic charitable and educational organizations.”
Improvement in Vietnam
The one country where religious repression had lightened in the past couple of years is Vietnam. The Communist government attempts to control all religious organisations. Religious groups amongst ethnic minorities find it difficult to obtain official government recognition. Disputes continue about ownership of church properties.
However, there has been a thaw in relations with the Catholic Church. Archbishop Marek Zalewski became the first resident Papal Representative in the country since the Communist won the civil war in 1975. There are rumours that Pope Francis might even visit Vietnam, where about 8 percent of the population are Catholic.
* * * * * * * *
The ACN report is not a comprehensive study of Christian persecution around the world, but it is a reminder that millions of people live under a cloud of fear. The report gives a snapshot of 18 countries where religious freedom violations are particularly worrying. In more than 60 percent of the countries surveyed, human rights violations had increased since the 2022 report.
The Catholic Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, in Iraq, Bashar Warda, wrote a preface to Persecuted and Forgotten? Iraq has witnessed not just religious persecution, but genocide. Christians were slaughtered by ISIS fanatics and many have fled. Before 2003, there were an estimated 1.5 million Christians; today there are fewer than 150,000, according to the US State Department. Archbishop Warda’s words ought to shake the complacency of Western Christians:
“Our prayer is that those reading this report, whether governments or others with influence, will do more than just pay lip service to reports of Christian persecution; they must match their words with action – clear and decisive policy commitment – to help those whose only crime is the Faith they profess. It is vital that they act on early warnings – given in reports such as this – to prevent what happened to us in Iraq taking place elsewhere.”
Do you think that Christians are too touchy about persecution around the world?
Michael Cook is editor of Mercator
Image credit: Ismael Martinez Sánchez, ACN
Have your say!
Join Mercator and post your comments.
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David Page commented 2024-11-01 22:18:11 +1100Emberson, you have a point.
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Emberson Fedders commented 2024-11-01 13:11:36 +1100I suppose it makes sense that America, the most religious of all Western countries, also treats their women the most poorly.
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David Page commented 2024-10-31 15:36:20 +1100And, the more religious the society, the more extreme the persecution of women. Religious folks resent and fear women. There were towns in Germany during the witch frenzy where not one female survived. Not even an infant. The root of that frenzy was the fear and resentment of women.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-31 12:55:39 +1100David Page
Yep -
David Page commented 2024-10-31 11:48:15 +1100The most persecuted people around the world are women, hands down.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-31 09:56:48 +1100Julian Cheslow,
Here’s an example:
Josseli Barnica died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital
https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban -
Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-31 09:54:57 +1100Julian Cheslow,
Right. Most American Christians seem to think they have the right to use the apparatus of the state to force others to conform to the tenets of their interpretation of their religion. -
Julian Cheslow commented 2024-10-31 04:18:49 +1100Within the U.S, Christians are free to talk about persecution of Christians in other countries. However too many of them think not being able to enforce there religion on others makes them persecuted.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-29 16:03:22 +1100Here’s how Seneca put it:
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” -
Emberson Fedders commented 2024-10-29 13:09:34 +1100No, I think it is in the nature of religion to persecute those that are ‘wrong’ – as you pointed out.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-29 11:33:16 +1100Emberson Fedders
Are Christians better at persecution than other religions or ideologies?
I’m no fan of Christianity and I have no delusions about their propensity to persecute. But I think right now the Hindus have everyone beat. Ask any Dalit. -
Emberson Fedders commented 2024-10-29 11:00:28 +1100Christians are experts at persecuting people, after all.
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Steven Meyer commented 2024-10-29 09:15:05 +1100Here’s my problem with articles like this:
I do not know of any religion or ideology that refrains from persecuting when they have power. It just seems to be built in, a feature not a bug.
Still, I am on the side of the persecuted whoever they are. That includes women in the United States seeking an abortion. -