As in ancient persecutions, many Christians today are killed simply for being one. The geography of hostility
anti-Christian and the impressive number of victims. We need to pray for those who are oppressed for Christ's sake.   

by Alba Arcuri

Lhe Pentecost massacre on June 5 in Nigeria sounds like a slap, but above all it draws attention to the risks faced by Christians in the world. An armed commando raids the Pentecostal Church of St. Francis Xavier, in the town of Owo, in Ondo State, during mass. About fifty people died, including women and children. We are in the south of the country; here a large part of the population is Christian. Christianity in Nigeria is the second religion after Islam, which prevails in the North. 

On June 19th it is the turn of a Catholic church in Kaduna State, in the north. An armed commando bursts in, killing at least three people. But the examples multiply. Massacres often go unnoticed.

Territorial, political and economic claims add up and sometimes prevail over ethnic-religious ones. But little changes for the dozens of dead and injured victims of armed violence. Over the last twenty years, attacks on churches and Christians have multiplied. Boko Haram, the dominant terrorist group in Nigeria, which swore allegiance to the Caliphate during the years of ISIS terror, is raging in the country, killing and devastating villages, not just Christians. However, there are also other jihadist terrorist groups. Added to the massacres are the kidnappings of young girls, Christians but not only, in schools. Who doesn't remember the kidnapping of 300 girls in 2014 from the Chibok boarding school, mostly Christian young people, forced by violence to convert to Islam? It made the news then, but there have been other mass kidnappings in the country; one dates back to a few months ago. A strategy that aims on the one hand at demanding ransom, but also at brainwashing and subjugation. Even when they are freed, nothing is as before for the young students. 

Can we talk about persecution of Christians? 

Research by the NGO Porte Aperte (Open Doors), presented to the Chamber at the beginning of this year, speaks of 360 million Christians persecuted or discriminated against in the world. One in seven. From 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021, 5.898 Christians were killed, over five thousand churches and places of worship were attacked or closed, and 3.800 Christians were kidnapped.

At the top of the list of persecuting countries is Afghanistan, which has significantly increased the level of persecution since the Taliban regime took office, the Koranic students who took power, the summer of 2021. They canceled any civil and religious freedom, which was already precarious. Muslims who convert to Christianity risk death, even at the hands of their own family members for whom conversion is a shame to be washed away.

In second place is North Korea, another illiberal regime of communist origin, in which civil liberties are practically cancelled. Any Christian found practicing their faith risks being arrested, brutally tortured, to the point of death. For twenty years North Korea has been at the top of the list of persecutor countries, now overtaken by Afghanistan.

Next comes Somalia, where 90 percent of the population follows Islam and where Christianity is prohibited. Mogadishu Cathedral was destroyed in 2008. There are no churches. The cult is practiced in secret. The Islamic jihadist group Al Shebaab is active in Somalia and has sworn allegiance to ISIS, but beyond the label it is the author of fundamentalist massacres throughout the territory.

Then there are Libya and Yemen, countries with a Muslim majority, but above all countries at war where the struggle between factions dominates and where Christian minorities are the object of violence.

Eritrea follows, an illiberal regime led by the bloodthirsty dictator Afewerki. The country has an Islamic majority, where however Christians number more than two and a half million, out of five and a half million inhabitants. In Eritrea the situation is particularly complex: there are few churches tolerated and they are subjected to harsh controls, or suffer raids by the police. Since 2002 the government has recognized only Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran Christians. The other churches are illegal. Religious people are often imprisoned because of their faith. There is a climate of denunciation: neighbors spying on neighbors.

Nigeria occupies seventh place. Followed by Pakistan and Iran, two other countries with an Islamic majority (the latter led by a Shiite regime) and India. The latter is a basically democratic country, where freedom of worship exists, with a Hindu majority. The persecution against the Christian minority (but also against Muslims) is carried out above all by Hindu extremists. Hinduism is the majority religion.

The list is long: there are 76 countries persecuting Christians. Many predominantly Muslim. But Christian countries also appear on the list, such as Colombia and Mexico. Here the violence comes mainly from criminal gangs, often involved in drug trafficking, who attack Christians who do not intend to be recruited.

Then there is a final phenomenon, that of refugees: Christians who flee their country to avoid persecution. One of the most dramatic images is that of Syria, the cradle of Christianity, the land of Saint Paul. In the years in which ISIS raged in that area (between Syria and Iraq) in 2014 and in the following three years, it is estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of Christians were forced to flee to avoid death.