OVER 200 MILLION CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE FACING SEVERE PERSECUTION
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
215 million Christians faced the most severe
persecution in 2017, resulting in 3,066 deaths
and 1,020 rapes mainly targeting women
While North Korea tops the list of the world’s worst persecuting
countries, in second place and occupying every place down to number 14
are majority-Muslim countries, with the single exception of Eritrea.
In order after North Korea: 2. Somalia 3. Afghanistan 4. Pakistan 5.
Sudan 6. Syria 7. Iraq 8. Iran 9. Yemen 10. Eritrea 11. Libya 12.
Nigeria 13. Maldives 14. Saudi Arabia.
The world has grown accustomed to this intolerable abuse against
Christians, and whenever the ubiquitous and systemic Islamic abuses of
Christians are pointed out, apologists are quick to divert attention
away by pointing out other abuses elsewhere.
“Study: Over 200 Million Christians Worldwide Facing Severe Persecution”, by Edwin Mora, Breitbart, January 11, 2018:
WASHINGTON, DC — North Korea stands at the top of a list
of 50 countries where at least 215 million Christians faced the most
severe persecution in 2017, resulting in 3,066 deaths and 1,020 rapes
mainly targeting women, revealed Open Doors, an organization that
monitors ill-treated Christians worldwide.
At the National Press Club on Wednesday, David Curry, the president
and CEO of Open Doors, unveiled the 2018 World Wide List (WWL) of the
top 50 “most dangerous” countries to worship Jesus. Referring to North
Korea, he declared:
Imagine in your mind a leader that thinks he’s god but acts like an
animal — devouring his own people with his teeth where people are forced
to worship at the statute of Kim Jung Un and bow down and lay flowers
at his feet as if he was a god.
Yet, [Kim] sets up controls mechanisms, neighborhood watches that
surround communities rewarding citizens for spying on each other giving
them more food if they find somebody who has a Bible and who purports to
a be a Christian and that makes Christians the number one enemy of the
state in North Korea and that’s why it is the number one on the world’s
watchlist.
Open Doors pointed out that thousands of Christians are facing death
worldwide for practicing their faith, particularly in North Korea.
According to the monitor group’s 2018 World Watch List (WWL), “215
million Christians experience high levels of persecution in the [50]
countries on the World Watch List,” with the majority of them in North
Korea, considered “the worst place for Christians” for 16 consecutive
years since 2002.
Open Doors reported:
The primary driver of persecution in North Korea is the state. For
three generations, everything in the country focused on idolizing the
leading [Kim Jung Un] family. Christians are seen as hostile elements in
society that have to be eradicated.
Due to the constant indoctrination permeating the whole country,
neighbors and even family members are highly watchful and report any
suspicious religious activity to the authorities…The situation for
Christians is vulnerable and precarious. They face persecution from
state authorities and their non-Christian family, friends and neighbors.
Pray for their protection.
There are many Christians languishing, starving, and enduring hard
labor in North Korea prisons for merely owning a Bible and having faith
in Jesus Christ.
Since the U.S.-led war that started in Afghanistan soon after
September 11, 2001, the United States has spent at least $877 billion on
the war-devastated country, including on the promotion of religious
freedoms.
Nevertheless, Afghanistan came in second place in the list of the top
50 worst countries in terms of persecution — where the cost of being a
Christian can quickly turn into a nightmare and the last breath one ever
takes.
During the 2017 reporting period covered by the latest World Watch
List, persecutors killed 3,066 Christians, kidnapped 1,252, raped 1,020,
and attacked 793 churches, noted Open Doors.
Of the top ten countries, eight are tormented by “Islamic
Oppression,” which mainly refers to hostility against Christians.
Eritrea and North Korea are the exceptions.
Meanwhile, persecution against Christians at the hands of “Hindu
extremists” in India is on the rise, resulting in deaths and rape of
Christian women.
“A shocking trend in the world watchlist I want to highlight for you
today is the increase in persecution of Christian women,” stated Curry.
“The data seems to prove that Christian women are the most vulnerable
population today with sexual harassment and rape and forced marriage
being prime tactics from extremists against the world against
Christians.”
Pakistan, India’s regional enemy, has accused Hindu extremists of
persecuting Christians and Muslims and forcing them to convert to their
religion….Every day, Christian women reportedly face sexual harassment, rape,
and forced marriage, all common in India, which is ranked 11 on the
persecution list.
The justice for Christians in India is “poor,” determined Curry,
noting that 635 Jesus followers were held and detained in the nation
without trial last year alone, often called one of the largest
democracies in the world.
Of the 50 nations on the Open Doors World Watch list, at least two
Western Hemisphere countries made the cut joining the very few
predominantly Christian nations on the list — Latin America’s Mexico
(39th place) and Colombia (49th) where persecution is reportedly driven
by “organized crime and corruption.”
The monitor group identifies North Korea’s communist and
post-communist oppression as the primary source of persecution against
Christians, which make up a little over 1 percent (300,000) of the 25.4
million population…..