Faith under fire
While Australian and New Zealand Christians bask in a persecution-free zone, in other countries believers are under attack. Sometimes they have to flee for their lives. OpenDoors lists the 50 worst offenders.
North Korea holds the number one ranking for the 14th consecutive year on the OpenDoors World Watch List, which ranks the top 50 countries which persecute Christians.
Known as the Hermit Kingdom due to its wilful isolation from the rest of the world, North Korea’s apex position is due to leader Kim Jong Un’s efforts to stamp out organised religion in what he views as a challenge to his power.
The 2016 World Watch List has also revealed a continued ESCALATION of HOSTILITY towards Christians worldwide.
Although North Korea tops the list, the major source of persecution identified in 36 of the 50 countries on the list is Islamic extremism. For this reason Iraq has been ranked second. Since the late 1990s the Christian population in Iraq has shrunk from more than 1.5 million to less than 220,000. Of the Christians who remain, most are displaced in the north-east of the country, as a result of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The group has executed an unknown number of people for refusing to convert to its brand of Islam and caused many others to flee. The group still holds large swathes of territory in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria, which also appears on the list at number five.
International media coverage has focused on Islamic State; however, Boko Haram, rated as the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index 2015, also has impacted rankings. Gaining notoriety after the kidnapping of more than 200 school girls in Chibok, the group is responsible for more murders over the past 12 months than Islamic State. Boko Haram’s insurgency has resulted in a rank at number 12 for Nigeria, where the group is based, and a rank of 49 in Niger due to cross-border attacks.
Number three on the World Watch List is Eritrea. Labelled as ‘the North Korea of Africa’, this small east-coast nation broke away from Ethiopia in 1991 in a bloody civil war. Since this time President Afewerki has maintained a brutal and oppressive reign, imprisoning anyone considered to be a dissenter. Eritrea had the dubious honour of the largest score increase in this year’s list.
At number four on the list, Afghanistan has been battling a continued insurgency from the Taliban. Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Libya round out the top 10.
While much media attention is given to Islamic extremism, persecution stemming from other sources, such as Hindu extremism in India, has also risen sharply. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised for largely ignoring violence towards religious minorities. Christians have suffered particularly through forced conversion ceremonies.
It has been reported that sometimes these ceremonies were on a scale of up to 400 people at a time, occurring in areas near the city of Varanasi. India this year ranks at number 17.
Also of notable inclusion on the list is one of Australia’s closest neighbours, Indonesia. Rising on the list this year to 43, up from 47 last year, Indonesia saw a spate of attacks on churches in October. One church was burned down while several others were closed due to a lack of proper registration. This registration can often be held up by local authorities in an attempt to curb the growing number of Christians in the country.
The 2016 World Watch List has also revealed a continued escalation of hostility towards Christians worldwide. Analysts working for OpenDoors who compile the list have said that scores have increased on average by two and a half points, while the entry score for the list has increased by three points.
They have also pointed out that, while the top of the list is dominated by North African and Middle Eastern countries, persecution is rising rapidly in Central Asia. Many former communist countries, which now have issues with extremists fighting abroad in countries such as Syria and Iraq, have started aggressively monitoring all religious activity. This has meant increased scrutiny of Christian gatherings and a crackdown on freedom of religious expression.
The full World Watch List of 50 countries is available on the OpenDoors website.
Tim Wilson is Media Coordinator for OpenDoors.
OpenDoors is a charity that provides support to Christians facing persecution in more than 60 countries worldwide. Working through staff, volunteers, local partners and an underground network of indigenous Christians in hostile places, OpenDoors holds the philosophy that ‘the Word of God cannot be held in chains and there are no closed doors to the gospel’. The organisation was founded more than 60 years ago by Dutch missionary Anne van der Bijl, who is known in English-speaking countries as Brother Andrew. He co-wrote the book God’s Smuggler about his mission taking Bibles to people behind the Iron Curtain into Eastern Europe and the then Soviet Union.
This feature story comes from The Lutheran March 2016. Visit the website to find out more about The Lutheran or to subscribe.