Christian Persecution in Worldwide – Detailed Observation in the Top 50 Countries

The people don’t live in the same region, or even on the same continent. But they share important characteristics. They are all Christians, and they suffer because of their faith. While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ. From Sudan to Afghanistan, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith. They are attacked, they are discriminated against at work and at school; they risk sexual violence, torture, arrest and much more. Certainly, whatever the reason for the West’s tolerance of anti-Christian violence, it’s not lack of evidence. A search on YouTube of “Christian persecution” will yield, at random, footage documenting the beheading of a Korean Christian, Kim Sun-il, by a gang of Muslim militants in Iraq; churches, businesses, and homes burned in Orissa, India; a pastor in South Sudan whose hands were burned to stumps when a mob that had torched his church forced him back inside it; the rampage of a Muslim mob against a Christian village in Ethiopia; the beating and torture of house-church Christian leaders in China; the imprisonment of 235 Christians from 35 cities in six months in Iran. Imprisonments, beatings, tortures, rapes, forced conversions almost always to Islam, and murders are narrated or documented from Morocco to Pakistan, from North Korea to Indonesia. Over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination.<br><br>5898 Christians killed for their faith, 5110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked, 4765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned. These numbers are heart-breaking. And yet, they do not tell the whole story. James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” That joy is what we see when we hear and work with Christians all over the world who suffer because they serve Jesus. God cares for His people, and He will never leave or forsake them.