The level of persecution against Christians, already recorded as shockingly high for 2015, has not subdued any around the world and is pretty much on a fast-track path to reach even new levels of egregiousness in the coming months.
“It is appalling that Open Doors has to report that persecution has increased again in 2016 and we are still at the worst levels of persecution in modern times,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, to Fox News. “The spread of persecution has gotten worse, now hitting nearly every continent in the world. There were 23 Christians killed in Mexico specifically because of their faith.”
Curry’ remarks come after release of the organizations’ newest survey on its yearly World Watch List ranking of countries and their treatment of Christians.
And that report comes just after another group, the Center for Studies on New Religions, conducted and released its own similar study.
From Fox News:
“Center for Studies on New Religions … showed nearly 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2016 and that as many as 600 million were prevented from practicing their faith through intimidation, forced conversions, bodily harm or even death.
“‘These numbers underscore what we already know,’ Robert Nicholson of the Philos Project, an advocacy group for Christianity in the Middle East, told Fox News at the time of the report’s release. ‘There are many places on Earth where being a Christian is the most dangerous thing you can be. Those who think of Christianity as a religion of the powerful need to see that in many places it’s a religion of the powerless. And the powerless deserve to be protected.’
“Open Doors said in its new report that some 215 million Christians around the globe are facing some degree of persecution. But that number, it noted, could actually be much higher.
“‘Our report is conservative because it only calculates incidents that are reported and can be validated,’ Curry told Fox News. ‘It is likely that there are thousands of incidents that are never reported and nobody knows because Christians are often fearful to tell anyone – even their own family members.'”
Curry said his group’s report found Asia in particular has seen an uptick in persecution against Christians. Specifically, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims from the likes of Pakistan, India and Myanmar have increased their targeting of Christians.
Again, from Fox News:
“‘Governmental raids increased, church membership requirements were suddenly doubled overnight resulting in churches being regarded as now illegal, among other things,’ Curry told Fox News. ‘This is one area of the world that we are keeping a careful eye on because of the dramatic rise in persecution.'”
Why the persecution?
For one, some of these countries and religious populations view Christianity as a colonization measure used by the West.
