Street violence in Egypt
Seventy five percent of religious persecution in the world is against Christians, reports a British watchdog group, which says 100 million Christians are facing official oppression.
China, Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia are the worst places for Christians to practice their faith, reports Aid to the Church in Need. Also making the list are Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
John Pontifex
While persecution is terrible in countries where Islamic extremists are on the rise, the report notes that Christians are harassed in Burma, India, and Sri Lanka as well — where militant Hindus and Buddhists have resorted to violence against Christians, said John Pontifex, organization spokesman.
Politics are sometimes an issue.
“As they are in most cases unable to attack Western countries direct, many extremists turn their fire on local Christians,” he said — as extremists equate Christianity with the western world.
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Widdecombe, a British Member of Parliament for 23 years, said she is “increasingly alarmed” by reports of violence and intimidation against Christians. She criticized the British government’s efforts to protect the rights of religious minorities and its tendency to turn a blind eye to persecution of Christians overseas.
“It is time to put our heads above the parapet and speak up in the name of Christians suffering for their faith,” she said. “I am delighted to support the work of Aid to the Church in Need, which is doing excellent work to help persecuted Christians.”
Keith O’Brien, the UK’s Catholic Cardinal from Edinburgh recently described persecution of Christians as “perhaps the biggest human rights scandal of our generation.”
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posted August 31, 2011 at 5:28 pm
While I cannot comment about other countries I can tell you that Christians are not persecuted in Venezuela. 90% of Venezuelans consider themselves Catholics and Evangelicals are rising. Christianity is embedded in the everyday culture, so every school graduation includes a mass, every new business has priest’s blessing it and a few weeks ago there was a service to pray for the health of the president. There has been recent attacks on popular religious images, but the authors are unknown and many have pointed to some evangelical fundamentalists. People in Venezuela are free to attend the church of their choice, wear religious simbols, many schools start with a prayer, religious festivals take place all the time and by law there is religous freedom -so I fail to see how Christians are persecuted in my country.
posted August 30, 2011 at 7:39 am
Well said ann,keep up the good work,as a voice for suffering christians,it seems the british goverment is concerned with every other faith apart from ours.
posted March 24, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Keep ur faith n God,He will not put more on u than u can bear. I will
pray for the christians, and that help comes their way.
posted March 24, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Thanks for standing up for our suffering brethren; “we remember those in prison”. And be their voice.