Aid to the Church in Need: Christians: The most persecuted religious group in the world

Christians: The most persecuted religious group in the world

Posted by Press Release on 14/11/2002, 7:53 am
Board Administrator

AN exhaustive investigation has revealed the huge scale of suffering that make Christians the most persecuted religious group in the world.
Up to two thirds of the Christian population worldwide face persecution - be it discrimination, imprisionment, slavery and even death.
Research by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need shows that violence against Christians is a modern phenomenon all over the world - everywhere from El Salvedor to the Philippines.
And the report shows that Christianity's old enemy - Communism - is now joined by another threat to Christians - fundamentalist Islam. Of the 10 countries with worst Christian persecution four are Communist and five are Muslim. The five Communist-controlled countries all in the Far East - China, Laos, Vietnam And North Korea - whereas the Islamic countries are more widely spread - Saudia Arabia, Uzbekistan, Iran, the Maldives and Afghanistan.
And even in countries further down the table of persecution, the stories of persecution make grim reading. For example, Indonesia, where at least 5,000 Christians were forced to convert to Islam and be held against their will in the homes of militant Muslims.
The landmark publication - called Violence Against Christians in the Year 2001 - takes the reader through 12 months of atrocities in more than 60 countries - singling out appaling cases of suffering on a massive scale.
The book, reveals the plight of 100,000 Christians in labour camps in North Korea - people who receive far worse treatment than fellow prisoners because of their refusal to deny the Faith.
Moving to Sudan, the diary of violence tells how the state military went on the hunt for slaves targetting villages in the south of the country. More than 100 women and children - mostly Christians - were rounded up becoming just some of up to 100,000 slaves held in captivity in Sudan.
Drawing on a wealth of resources from throughout the world, Violence Against Christians is being seen as one of the most ambitious attempts to calculate the levels of Christian persecution worldwide.
Author Dr J.G. Orban, from Aid to the Church in Need, hopes his book will send out a signal to the world that the plight of Christians cannot be ignored. "For me the book is really very important," he said.
But amid the sadness, Dr Orban sets out to show how the faith of Christians continues to shine out even in the most testing of times. He tells of 18-year-old Agau Adom Mayen constantly on the run from aggressors but continuing to hold a prayer that his family were still alive despite not seeing them for more than a decade when they were forced to flee their home in Sudan.
Violence Against Christians in the Year 2001 shows how Christians are constantly having to battle against a barrage of Government reforms clamping down on religious freedom and how in many countries the faithful struggle to hold public acts of prayer let alone try to build churches, teach children about Christ or evangelise.
The book follows hot on the heels of a similar book by the same name but dealing with 2000. The bold, new initiative produced only in Dr Orban's native Holland -soon sold out, prompting calls for another volume to be produced.
Violence Against Christians in the Year 2001 can be downloaded free of charge from the Australian website of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need www.aidtochurch.org The report totals 288 pages

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