The British Secret Service reports that some 200 million Christians in 60 countries around the world are at risk of persecution – a scandal to which many in the West would like to turn a blind eye. The report was published in the Sunday Express in London, and carried by the Catholic News Agency

According to the MI6 report, in the Sudan, for example, “thousands of Christians have been massacred and the fundamentalist government has done little to protect them”. In Iraq, “the situation is grave: Christians do not have their own militia to defend them, and Sunni and Shiite factions accuse them of collaborating with the American `crusaders’ and among the hundreds of victims of kidnappings this year there are a growing number of Christians”.

The study also reveals that during the last year, at least 70 Christians were killed in Pakistan. In Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, “Christians who belong to the Russian Orthodox Church are often looked down upon: in these three republics of the former Soviet Union, Muslim preachers, `under the influence of Al Qaeda,’ present Christians as followers of a religion closely associated with the despised Western colonialism and they call for their expulsion,” the report states.

North Korea, China, Eritrea, Nigeria and Uganda are other countries where Christians are persecuted. North Korea has sent some 50 thousand Christians to concentration camps, while in China some 40 thousand have suffered the same fate. The report also notes the increasing difficulties facing Palestinian Christians due to the progressive radicalisation of the Islamic masses in the Middle East.

Religious persecution has always existed, and Christians have carried out their fair share, but advocates for the persecuted say it has never been so widespread across the world, often ignored by Western governments and churches.

Communist and Muslim countries are the worst offenders, though in Muslim countries it often starts in the mosques rather than the government.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a congressional watchdog, in its May 2007 report, lists in order Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam as the worst offenders.

In many countries, Islamists are trying to revive the jizya, an ancient tax that suffered Christians and Jews to practise their religion but cemented their inferiority. If they cannot pay they are told they must give a daughter or sister in marriage to a Muslim. In Egypt, Islamists are abducting and raping Coptic (Christian) women in a systematic campaign to shame them and forcibly convert them. Police deny the complaints of Christian families and stand by while street mobs attack churches and Christian homes. A non-Muslim woman must produce four Muslim men as witnesses to prove she was raped.

Hamas has warned the few remaining Christians in Gaza that they are now living in a full Islamic society, with its implications.

Christians are increasingly forced out of the Middle East, where a century ago they made up 20 per cent of the population. They are identified with Americans and crusaders, and have little ability to protect themselves.

China has as many as 130 70 million Christians now. Pope Benedict XVI has just written an open letter to Chinese Catholics, acknowledging their suffering but urging forgiveness, and reconciliation between the underground and official church. He has long sought a renewal of relations between China and the Vatican, broken off in the1950s.

In India Hindu extremists associated with the BJP party are persecuting _ often killing _ both Christians and Muslims, while in Sri Lanka Buddhist extremists are attacking religious minorities and in Buddhist Bhutan refuses to acknowledge that Christians exist. Hindus and Christians are both violently persecuted in Bangladesh.

Malaysia the highest court recently ruled in line with sharia law and against the country’s constitution that a woman who had converted to Christianity must remain a Muslim.

Bahais in Iran and small groups such as the Sabean Mandaeans of Iraq also live in constant fear. According to Elizabeth Kendal of the WEA Religious Liberty Commission, the Mandaeans are only a sniff away from total annihilation.

What can ordinary people do? Elizabeth Kendal says: “The first thing to do is deal with apathy, disinterest and ignorance. Part of the reason people continue to suffer is because good people hear no evil, see no evil and do nothing.”

She urges people to get informed so they can lobby and advocate and spread information, and recommends her own organisation World Evangelical Alliance, China Aid Association, Voice of the Martyrs, the Barnabas Fund, Tears of the Oppressed and Middle East Concern among many.

What do you think? Do Australians care? Should our government do more, or does it do enough? What should we do as individuals? Is it just too daunting, or can we make a difference?

Posted by Barney Zwartz

July 2, 2007 12:45 PM

http://blogs.theage.com.au/thereligiouswrite/archives/2007/07/suffering_for_f.html