Pope Francis during the Angelus prayer in the Vatican, referring to today’s feast day of St. Stephen the First Martyr, assured his solidarity with discriminated Christians and encouraged them to remain in love with everyone and fight peacefully for justice and religious freedom.
As the interdenominational charity Open Doors reminds us, every seventh Christian in the world is being persecuted, and harassment and often open violence against them are currently on the rise.
Across 50 countries, the international agency’s current Global Persecution Index records more than 360 million Christians exposed to high or extremely high levels of persecution and discrimination.
As a result of the violence, more and more Christians are living in isolation, uncertainty and fear of being attacked. The spiral of violence also has consequences for entire societies and future generations, warned the aid organization, which has been active since 1955.
Violence against believers
Attacks on religious minorities have manifested in both physical and material violence, church closures, arrests, forced marriages, abuse, evictions, looting of homes or shops, and attacks on church buildings and other Christian buildings such as schools or hospital wards. Even churches could no longer provide security. In many cases, clerics were killed or forced to leave the region, the report points out.
Open Doors warns that in addition to the already visible damage, the negative consequences of violence will also affect future generations, because young people often grow up without education and are therefore more susceptible to extremist groups. Christians are also the religious community most at risk of rising violence because of their faith, according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center.
Persecution of Christians for their faith comes from governments in some countries, but often also from extremist religious and political groups. According to Open Doors, Iran and China are two negative examples of how regimes act against ‘dissenters’ such as Christians in their countries.
According to a recent report, violence against Christians has increased significantly, especially in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. The violence is now spreading across the dark continent: the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin, the east coast of Africa up to Mozambique and Cameroon are already hit by Islamic terror. In particular, Christian-majority Cameroon is facing brutal attacks by Boko Haram militants on Christian villages in the north of the country. According to Open Doors, forced conversions to Islam and kidnappings take place there.
Manipur in India’s northeast has also been the scene of clashes for months due to tensions between the largest ethnic group, the Meitei, who are mainly Hindu, and the Kuki-Zomi minority, who are mainly Christian. Christians and Christian churches and institutions are increasingly the target of attacks: recently 60 Christians were killed, 35,000 Christians had to flee, 397 churches and 6 Christian institutions were destroyed.
In this context, the European Parliament in Brussels adopted an urgent resolution on the incidents in Manipur in July. The resolution called on local authorities to take all necessary measures to “immediately stop the ongoing ethnic and religious violence.”
The interdenominational aid organization Open Doors, founded in 1955, is a network of 25 associations in Europe and America that mobilize people for the cause of persecuted Christians. Nearly 1,400 people work for it worldwide. Open Doors helps persecuted Christians, regardless of denomination, in more than 70 countries. Projects include prisoner engagement, emergency and trauma work, providing Bibles and Christian literature, training church leaders and supporting families of murdered Christians. At the same time, she informs the public about the persecution of Christians in the 21st century, organizes lectures and meetings, issues publications, encourages prayer for those affected by persecution and calls for specific support. Once a year it also publishes the World Persecution Index, which reflects the situation of Christians in the fifty countries where they are most persecuted.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
