2017 Christian Persecution Stats Revealed

Christians are one of the only groups in the world not offered protection in the court of public opinion. But such things are merely the beginning of the end. In various parts of the world, it has gotten so bad that even the actual physical persecution of Christians is permissible.

Nearly one in 12 Christians across the globe lives in an area where there is high-level persecution against members of the religion, according to an annual report by a top religious advocacy group.

The recent World Watch List released Wednesday by Open Doors USA, tracks and monitors incidents of Christian persecution reported globally, and ranks countries seen as the biggest offenders. The findings in this year’s report showed 215 million Christians are in areas that have experienced high levels of persecution, including 50 countries that were on the list.

Among those facing persecution during the reporting period, 3,066 Christians were killed, 1,252 were abducted, nearly 800 churches were defaced and 1,020 Christians were raped or sexually harassed. Officials with Open Doors say the last figure is a troubling development as Christian women became an increased target of persecution — with six women being targeted daily.

“The most significant findings were that Christian women are among the most violated in the world, in maybe a way that we haven’t seen before,” David Curry, the president and CEO of Open Doors USA, told Fox News. “We need to raise the flag. These are tactics are being increasingly used by extremists.”

Even more alarming is how some of this can be traced back to members of a certain religion, according to Open Doors Ministries.

At least six women every day are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage to a Muslim man under the threat of death for their Christian faith, the study found.

The World Watch List documented over 2,000 such incidents against women—a number that covers only the reported incidents, and is estimated to be a fraction of the total who were raped and harassed.

The report also notes that Islamic extremism is the main common factor in predicting Christian persecution.

The report also found that Islamic extremism is still the main global driver of persecution and that the Middle East has seen a dramatic increase of persecution against Christians in 35 of the 50 countries on the list.

Afghanistan, in particular, showed an alarming trend among the top ten of the list – no central government, extremist Muslim factions trying to control the country and an intense, conservative Islamic population.

Other countries that saw a sharp rise in incidents of persecution for 2017 included Egypt, India, Libya, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkey.

Afghanistan might be Muslim, and North Korea a godless atheist dictatorship, but the outcomes are the same in many regards.

“Afghanistan and North Korea nearly tied,” Curry said. “Never before have the top two countries been so close to incidents. Both countries are extreme in intolerance and outright persecution of Christians in every area Open Doors monitors. Afghanistan now meets the same level of persecution as North Korea in five out of the six areas. This is a tragedy considering the efforts being made by the international community to help rebuild Afghanistan are failing to ensure freedom of religion.”

When will people wake-up and realize what is really going on?

Head on over to the next page to view the map of 50 countries experiencing EXTREME levels of Christian persecution

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