260 Million Christians Face 'High Levels Of Persecution'

A Global Catastrophe: "260 Million Christians Experience High Levels of Persecution"

by Raymond Ibrahim

• Dictatorial paranoia continues to make North Korea (#1) the worst nation. "If North Korean Christians are discovered, they are deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot." — World Watch List 2020, Open Doors.
  
  
• Otherwise, as has been the case in all statistics and reports on the global persecution of Christians, not only does "Islamic oppression" remain the chief "source of persecution" faced by Christians in seven of the absolute ten worst nations, but 38 of the 50 nations composing the list are either Muslim majority or have a sizeable Muslim population.
  
  
• The targeting of Christians around the world has become more widespread than ever. Part of this is because "persecution against Christians has taken a technological turn." ....in India (#10) — where "Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences" — "the government plans to introduce a national facial recognition system. Similarly, China (#23)...." — World Watch List 2020, Open Doors.
  
  
• Perhaps the most disturbing trend is that the number of persecuted Christians continues to grow year after year....
  
  
• Will this trend ever stop and reverse, or will it continue to get worse — and possibly even spill into those nations that, for now, enjoy religious freedom and equality?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The global persecution of Christians has reached unprecedented levels: "260 million Christians experience high levels of persecution" around the world, notes the recently published Open Doors World Watch List 2020, an annual report that ranks the top 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted for their faith.
  
  
  Additionally, "2,983 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. On average, that's 8 Christians killed every day for their faith": "9,488 churches or Christian buildings were attacked," and "3,711 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned." (Note: All quotes in this article are from the World Watch List 2020 report.)
  
  
  Dictatorial paranoia continues to make North Korea (#1) the worst nation. "If North Korean Christians are discovered, they are deported to labor camps as political criminals or even killed on the spot."