About 100 million Christians persecuted around the world - report
January 11, 2013 - About 100 million Christians are persecuted around the world,
with conditions worsening for them most rapidly in Syria and Ethiopia, according to
an annual report by a group supporting oppressed Christians worldwide. Open Doors,
a non-denominational Christian group, released the report on Tuesday, listing North
Korea, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as the three toughest countries for Christians
last year. They topped the 50-country ranking for 2011 as well. Syria jumped from
36th to 11th place on the list as its Christian minority, first suspected by rebels
of close ties to the Assad government, has increasingly become a target for radical
Islamist fighters, the report said. Ethiopia, which is two-thirds Christian, shot
up from 38th to 15th place in the ranking due to a "complex mix of persecution dynamics"
including attacks by radical Islamists and reprisals by traditional Christians against
new Protestant movements. Mali came from no listing for 2011 to 7th place because
the sharia rule the Islamist Ansar Dine group imposed on the north of the country
not only brought harsh punishments for the Muslim majority but also drove the tiny
Christian minority, it said. "There are over 65 countries where Christians are persecuted,"
said Open Doors, which began in the 1950s smuggling Bibles into communist states and
now works in more than 60 countries. "An estimated 100 million Christians worldwide
are persecuted," the United States-based group said in the report. All but one of
the 50 countries in the list - Colombia, which ranked 46th - were in Africa, Asia
or the Middle East. Christianity is the largest and most widely spread faith in the
world, with 2.2 billion followers or 32 percent of the world population, according
to a report by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It faces
restrictions and hostility in 111 countries around the world, ahead of the 90 countries
limiting or harassing the second-largest faith, Islam, another Pew report said. "In
recent years, we've been hearing that Christianity is the most persecuted religion
in the world - that sounds right to us," said Open Doors France director Michel Varton
at a presentation of the report in Strasbourg. Open Doors, which documents cases
of persecution of Christians, said its report was based on official studies, news
reports and field reports and questionnaires filled out by its staff workers around
the world. Of the top 10 countries on the list - North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Somalia, Maldives, Mali, Iran, Yemen and Eritrea - eight are majority Muslim
states threatened by what Open Doors called "Islamic extremism". North Korea has kept
its number one ranking for the past 11 years because it is illegal simply to be a
Christian there, it said. Open Doors estimates that up to 70,000 North Koreans have
been sent to labour camps for their faith. The report said second-placed Saudi Arabia,
which bans public practice of any faith but Islam, has a growing Christian population
because of its migrant workers and some converts it says converted after watching
Christian satellite television. "Christians risk further persecution and oppression
in the future due to the rising number of converts and their boldness in sharing their
faith," it said.