Persecution is one of the ugliest behaviours people are capable of, and we’ve been doing it since the dawn of humanity.
In fact, it is more widespread today than at any point in history, yet few in the secular West realise that much the most endangered group is Christians. Some 400 million Christians, more than one in seven, are at daily risk of persecution, especially in Africa and Asia. According to a 2019 British government report, they make up 80 per cent of those being persecuted for their religion.
Genocide by Muslim groups in Nigeria alone has claimed 160,000 Christian lives in the past 15 years, yet Western media usually reports this as ethnic conflict, if it even notices. The causes, as always, are complex and mixed, but there is no doubt that religious conquest is the main motivation behind groups such as Boko Haram.
Aid agency Open Doors has just published its annual World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries to be a Christian. North Korea is top again, as it mostly has been since the survey began two decades ago. Its danger rating is 97 out of 100.
The authoritative survey measures persecution ranging from death or imprisonment to denial of water, food or healthcare. Open Doors notes that persecution generally happens inside a wider suffocation of rights, a weakened state, failing or constricted institutions and the collapse of the rule of law. Sometimes persecution is instituted by the state, sometimes the state allows persecutors to act with impunity.
After North Korea come 10 Islamic nations – Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria (the big riser to sixth from 18th), Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, Iran and Afghanistan. The rest of the top 20 are also Muslim, apart from India (12), Myanmar (14) and China (17).
Why does the plight of Christians attract so little attention from Western activists who care about rights abuses? I suspect the most important factor is that they have been taught to see Christianity as the religion of Westerners, colonialists who deserve opprobrium. In fact, the vast majority live in Africa, South America and Asia, and have little political power.
It is not only Christians who are persecuted. India has the third-highest Muslim population, more than 200 million, and many are under intense pressure, as are Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Numerically, the worst persecutors of Muslims are other Muslims.
Atheists are persecuted in many nations, Baha’is in Iran, while China has targeted political dissidents, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Catholics, Protestants and the Falun Gong. Then there’s perennial antisemitism.
Paradoxically, persecution has always strengthened the church, in faith and numbers, from first- century Rome to 21st century Iran and China. Tyrants fear people of faith, because they may torture the body but they cannot own the soul.
Barney Zwartz is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity.
Barney Zwartz, a senior fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity, was religion editor of The Age from 2002 to 2013.
