Persecution of Christians Increasing Worldwide

Christians continue to be martyred abroad, but few American believers are aware of how pervasive religious persecution is around the world. "Christians in this nation don't realize how fortunate they are to live in the U.S.," observes Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International. The Taliban's kidnapping of the South Korean aid workers in Afghanistan illustrates how that conflict is essentially religious. Yet "the U.S.-backed government is little friendlier to Christians," observes Jacobson. "Last year Christian convert Abdul Rahman barely evaded a death sentence, and only after Western nations placed substantial pressure on Kabul." In Turkey attacks continue on Christians and churches. In an area along the Black Sea coast where an Italian Catholic priest was previously murdered, a Protestant church was vandalized and its pastor threatened. "Earlier this year three Christians were murdered in a particularly gruesome fashion by Muslim extremists," Jacobson points out. Attacks on Christians are up in India. In one city a Catholic convent school was attacked; in another town Hindu fanatics murdered a Christian convert; elsewhere a Protestant minister was arrested for allegedly offering money for a conversion, after seeking to mediate a dispute within a Buddhist family; in another case Christian missionaries were beaten. "India might be a democracy," notes Jacobson, "but it is far from free religiously." In Kazakhstan, Christians were tossed out of their home because they held an unauthorized prayer meeting. A Baptist minister was arrested in Azerbaijan while conducting services. Far worse "is the plight of Christians in Iraq," says Jacobson. Christians are routinely murdered and kidnapped; Christian churches are regularly destroyed; hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq.