Advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC) has made available to the public its report on the worst persecutors of the church in the year 2023.
The report assumes a similar approach to the U.S. State Department in its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and Special Watch List (SWL) designations. The main difference, however, is that the ICC report documents the worst persecutors of Christians worldwide and breaks them down three ways: by country, entity and individuals.
The countries listed as the worst persecutors are Nigeria, North Korea, India, Iran, China, Pakistan, Algeria, Eritrea, Indonesia and Azerbaijan.
Nigeria, India and Indonesia, while listed by ICC as persecutors of Christians, were not designated as CPCs by the State Department, nor were they placed on the SWL.
On January 24, 2024 reports emerged that at least 31 Christians were killed by Fulani Militants in Plateau State, Nigeria. It should come as no surprise that ICC listed the Fulani as an entity that persecutes Christians.
Your tax-deductible gift helps our journalists report the truth and hold Christian leaders and organizations accountable. Give a gift of $30 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you will receive a copy of “Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation” by Christa Brown. To donate, haga clic aquí.
Also in January, a French media outlet reportado that Hindu extremists were ruthlessly hunting down Christians in several states and driving them out of their communities based on anti-conversion legislation. One of their leaders was profiled in the report and details will be forthcoming.
Pertaining to Indonesia, in the most recent World Watch List released by Open Doors, the country placed 42nd out of 50 countries where Christians face persecution. Indonesia is known to practice a conservative version of Islam.
The entities listed by ICC included the Allied Democratic Forces, Al-Shabaab, Fulani Militants, Sahel Terror Groups, The Taliban and Tatmadaw.
The Allied Democratic Forces is one of the militant groups active in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. On January 30, an attack near the town of Beni resulted in the death of eight people, and an additional 30 people kidnapped by the group.
Al-Shabaab has been listed as an Entity of Particular Concern (EPC) by the State Department for their activities in Somalia and Kenya.
The Taliban has conducted a brutal campaign against Christians since reassuming power in Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, the Church has been forced to go underground and is largely cut off from the rest of the world.
The Tatmadaw, or the Armed Forces of Myanmar, seized control of the country after a military coup three years ago. A informe by the Centre for Information Resilience has documented that the Military of Myanmar has destroyed 107 religious buildings, with 67 churches among that total, in Chin State alone since the coup. The fighting in Chin State is most severe as it was the first state to actively resist the junta.
The five people listed as the greatest individual persecutors of Christians in the world include: Yogi Asityanath, Isaias Afrwerki, Recep Tayip Erdogan, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un.
Asityanath is the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh which is the current epicenter of the Hindu targeting of Christians.
President Afwerki of Eritrea oversees a country where repression is normal policy.
President Erdogan of Turkey has supported the Azerbaijani effort to ethnically cleanse the Armenian Christian community in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Erdogan has also intervened in the conflicts in Libya, Syria and Northern Iraq promoting an Islamist Ideology.
Both President Xi of China and Kim Jong Un of North Korea perceive Christianity as a direct threat to their rule. In China, the Church has been co-opted by the Communist Party. While, for several years, North Korea has been considered the most dangerous place to be a Christian.
Some of these countries, entities and individuals, according to the State Department, have not met the criteria for a designation under the International Religious Freedom Act. That fact is a matter of serious concern, as the persecution is blatant.
Este artículo ha sido reimpreso con permiso de Ecumenismo Jugoso.
Scott Morgan is an analyst on international religious freedom and contributor to The Institute on Religion and Democracy.
3 Respuestas
From the ICC homepage:
“ Our team of Washington, D.C.-based analysts spend thousands of hours annually reporting on and analyzing reports from our overseas staff and sources. ”
It’s a shame they focused on overt persecution and missed the covert ones (America would certainly rank high on that list), but is to be expected coming from the District of Corruption.
Kenly, What are some of your examples of persecution in the US?
And which of the following categories would you say your examples would fall into?
Keep in mind that religious discrimination is illegal and are, we have rights outlined in the Constitution and those rights are stronger today than ever, having been tested over and over.
The following categories I found on the the ICC website
Direct:
Imprisonment and Torture
Church & Bible Restrictions
Attacks on Life & Property
Assassination
Forced Conversions
Crimes against women
Indirect:
Education Discrimination
Job Discrimination
Denial of Rights
Legal Testrictions
Tricia,
Overtly persecuting Christians historically has most often led to it flourishing, not diminishing.
The powers that be know this and are covertly using sophisticated means/technology to carry out attacks on Christians who are blowing the whistle on the obvious corruption, fraud, luciferian, and anti-life/anti-God agendas around them. While at the same time those powers duplicitously uphold the mirage of constitutional religious protection for Christianity.
They are also specifically carrying out attacks on the children of couples who truly love Jesus.
My view on who is a lover of Jesus has narrowed over the years, and does not include the typical go-to-church on Sunday’s crowd as I see most organized churches have unknowingly been infiltrated by the same hidden agendas that have purposefully made American society extremely corrupt.
These so-called churches do not need to be persecuted as their constituents are adequately programmed to remain asleep.
A few examples:
https://www.westernjournal.com/pro-life-women-70s-found-guilty-felony-protesting-dc-abortion-clinic/
https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF22F60.pdf
Targetedjustice.com