Intolerance of, and Persecution of Christians

"If you don't know what is going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You are in a bubble. I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. they have killed over 100,000 since 2009. They have burnt 18,000 churches."

"This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally trying to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?"

Commentator Bill Maher

 

"In North Korea, it's illegal to be a Christian. It's illegal to own a Bible. There's an estimated 60,000 Christians imprisoned or in Labour camps in North Korea. There's no way to openly express your faith in North Korea."

"It's not only you who will be punished: North Korean authorities are likely to round up your extended family and punish them too, even if  your family members aren't Christians."

"Persecution is growing around the world, both in global spread, but also in intensity. We recognize now that more than 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith in Jesus Christ." 

Andrew Croft, communications and relations manager, Open Doors Canada 

 

"You could face house arrest, forced marriage, forced Islamic rituals or even threats to  your life [as punishment for those who convert to Christianity]."

"[In Sudan], More than 100 churches have been damaged so far, and Christians have been abducted and killed."

"[In Pakistan], the number of Christian girls [and those from other minority religions are] abducted, abused and forcefully converted to Islam [frequently backed by lower courts] is growing."

"In recent years the [Chinese] government has aggressively tried to ensure all religious expression is brought into line with official Chinese Communist philosophy." 

Open Doors Canada 

The governments of Kenya and the US announced a US$10 million reward for information on terror suspect Mohamoud Abdi Aden in 2023. Yasuyoshi Chiba/ AFP via Getty Images

 

An estimated 62,000 Christians, since 2000, have been murdered in Nigeria. People found to be Christian in North Korea risk death by government forces, alternately being sent off to labour camps. Blasphemy laws in Pakistan carry the death penalty, with a quarter of all blasphemy cases (blaspheming against Islam or the Prophet) representing charges against fewer than two percent of the population: Pakistani Christians.

 

The reality is that Christians across the world have become an endangered species. And while in the West there is no end of commiseration with alleged charges of 'genocide' being committed by Israel in Gaza resulting from Palestinian terrorist groups -- led by the infamous Hamas having committed a mass atrocity of savage proportions in Israel, owing to the Israel Defense Forces' response in counter-attacking the various Palestinian terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad, Fatah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine alongside Hamas all of which took part in slaughtering 1,200 Jews on October 7, 2023 -- the plight of Christians worldwide appears to be studiously ignored.

 

In the West itself there appears an increasing intolerance for Christianity, despite that democracies have always been Judeo-Christian-inspired in their human rights laws and systems of justice in general. In the past several years as a result of a false report out of Canada that spun around the world, that Indigenous children housed and educated in mostly Catholic but government-sponsored Residential Schools suffered abuse and died in numbers over 160 years, greater than those of the general population, an aboriginal-led cataclysm of rage saw 100 churches being burned, with no one held to account.

 

According to the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) which promotes human rights and religious freedom, "the silent slaughter" of Christians over the past two decades saw 43,000 Christians murdered by the Boko Haram Islamist terror group. Muslim nomadic cattle herders -- extremist Fulanis -- killed another 19,000 who were pastoralists, farmers resisting the arable land they farmed being overrun by cattle, while the herders -- as in Sudan's similar conflict in Darfur against (Muslim) farmers followed a similar trajectory.

 

Brookings

 

Of the 276 Christian schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok in Nigeria, 82 of the girls have never been recovered. "Both of these groups (Islamic State West Africa and Boko Haram) and other groups like them have radicalized ideologies to build a Sharia state", charged Andrew Croft of Open Doors Canada. Nigeria, wrote U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, is now "the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian", addressing U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as he called for Nigeria to be re-designated a "country of particular concern".

 

Open Doors published a list of countries in 2025, where Christians are most persecuted. North Korea is top on the list at No.1. Somalia is No. 2 on the list where Christians are the targets of Al-Shabab, the violent Islamist group whose goal is to eradicate Christianity as a curse against Islam. No.3 is Yemen, followed in succession by Libya, Sudan, Eritrea and Nigeria. Some 97 million Christians in China face stern government regulations. 

 

Countries on the record as among those where Christians are persecuted are generally authoritarian where the rising growth of Islamist extremism is a driver.

 

Last year, in an address to the United Nations, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the secretary for relations with states with the Holy See, stated that "The data show that Christians are the most persecuted  religious group worldwide, and yet the international community seems to be turning a blind eye to the plight". Adding to that plaint from the Vatican, is the peculiarity of the Vatican itself doing little to indicate it is determined to campaign against the oppression of Christians in lands where totalitarian Islamism is the source of that persecution. 

 

"The dignity of the individual and the nature of the quest for the  ultimate truth require that everyone should be free from constraints regarding religion. Society and the state must not force someone to act against his or her conscience, nor prevent anyone from acting in accordance with it", urged the Archbishop. Fine words, but the followup action absent in large part. The Center for Religious Liberty released a report last year: "Free to Believe? The Intensifying Intolerance Toward Christians in the West":

 

"As the mainstream culture moves further and further away from a Christian world view, Christian beliefs that contradict progressive secular values are increasingly denounced by the culture and wrongly portrayed as being hateful or bigoted." As an example, a Finish member of Parliament was prosecuted for 'ethnic agitation' resulting from "a tweet containing a Bible verse in which she indicated disapproval of her church's sponsorship of a Pride event, for discussing her beliefs on a radio show and for publishing a pamphlet promoting a biblical understanding of marriage through her church". 

 

Abuja National Mosque, Shiraz

 

"Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian Christians have faced increased scrutiny and punishment."

"For Christians, there is no escape from the extremist policies of a government [Islamic Republic of Iran] fuelled by an extremist interpretation of Shia Islam that leaves no room even for Sunni Islam, much less religious minorities like Christianity."

International Christian Concern (ICC)

 

"It is shocking to see western countries -- the same ones we think of as free and open societies -- take authoritarian measures against Christians simply trying to live out their faith."

"Hostility toward Bible-believing Christians is clearly and steadily rising in the west."

Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council