In Iraq , the exodus of Christians has continued to be very severe, but hope has been on the horizon with Christians returning to their homes on the Nineveh Plains. However, a new ACN report on the situation puts spotlight on the need for the international community to do more to protect Christians in northern Iraq. This same exodus is threatening the survival of Christianity in parts of Syria , including Aleppo, formerly home to one of the largest Christian communities in the whole of the Middle East.
If Christian organizations like ACN and other institutions had not filled the gap, the Christian presence could already have disappeared Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. Today more Arab Christians, some 20 million, live outside the Middle East than remain in the region, whose number stands at 15 million.
Christians have suffered increased violence and oppression as a result of a rise in religious nationalism. Much of the anti-Christian rhetoric hinges on the suggestion that Christians are responsible for forced conversions. The number of attacks by Hindu extremists on Christians doubled in , reaching , up from in In , anti-Christians incidents were reported in India.
By some accounts, there have been more thank 1, attacks on Christians in India, between the beginning of and the end of March In , more than churches closed, reportedly in response to extremist attacks or intervention by authorities. In the first half of alone there were almost incidents of Christian persecution in India.
Some regional authorities have banned Christmas trees and greetings cards. The accord reached in between Beijing and the Vatican with regard to the appointment of bishops—with bishops having been chosen by the regime accepted by Rome—has not fundamentally changed the situation for Christians in China.
In worst-offending North Korea —where the perception that religion provides a means of foreign infiltration is also reflected in the rhetoric used by the government—extreme cruelty in the treatment of Christians includes enforced starvation, forced abortion and reports of faithful being hung on crosses over a fire and others being crushed under a steamroller.
Since Americans conveyed Christianity and since they are the ones who attempted to invade our country, those who are Christians are spies. Spies are executed. In Pakistan , discrimination of Christian minority is relentless, including denigrating references to the faith in government-sanctioned textbooks. Christians also suffer in the workplace, where they are largely relegated to menial jobs. The case of Asia Bibi—a Christian woman who spent eight years on death row, accused of allegedly insulting the Prophet of Islam—has brought the pernicious effect of the law to the fore.
In early May , she was able to travel to Canada to be reunited with her family. In Iran , there has been an escalation in anti-Christian sentiment in recent years, evident in negative media coverage and the proliferation of anti-Christian publications, visa refusal, targeted surveillance and intimidation tactics. In Turkey , the state has seized numerous Church properties in recent times.
There are indications of continuing intolerance of Christianity as evident in the Islamification of historic Christian sites, such as the Hagia Sophia. In Saudi Arabia the public profession of Christianity is illegal, as are public Masses.
There is tolerance of private worship by non-Muslims. Christian converts from Islam face the death penalty. In Egypt , in at least four major attacks since , well over a hundred Coptic Christians died at the hands of Islamist terrorists.
Christians charge the government is not doing enough to protect them. Meanwhile, it remains extremely difficult to get official permission to construct new churches. In Eritrea , there has been an increased government clampdown on Christians, with faithful who resist state control of their Churches ending up in prison under extremely harsh conditions.
Many Christians are leaving the country. Since the beginning of through May , there have been more than deadly attacks. Some Church leaders charge there is local government and military collusion in the murder of Christians, as well as the funding and supply of sophisticated weaponry to the herdsmen.
Several hundred Christian farmers were killed in the first half of Boko Haram, though weakened militarily, continues to kill Christians in northeastern Nigeria. On December 24, Boko Haram killed seven people and abducted a teenage girl in a raid on a Christian village in Borno State. Following the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka in , attacks on both Christians and Muslims have risen. These are largely carried out by Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists.
In addition, in the period ,there has also been an increase in attacks on churches in Eastern Province by extremist Hindu groups. The worst attack on Christians occurrred on Easter Sunday , when Islamist suicide bombers attacked three churches. At the time of this bombing, fears were still high in the wake of the siege of Marawi by Islamist extremists, who were finally defeated in October , following a five-month siege. Over that time more than 1, people died and , were displaced.
This provoked fear among Christians, who have been hoping for an end to persecution perpetrated by the now-deposed strongman Omar al-Bashir. Hardist hit have been the Nuba Mountains, where Christians have suffered ethnic cleansing as Arab-Sudanese try to eradicate black Sudanese with indiscriminate military attacks on Christian villages, churches, hospitals and schools.
Every day proves to be a struggle, and for many people the scriptures are their only source of comfort and strength, making the Bible one of the most sought after resources.
In a country that cannot be named, to protect those who are currently experiencing persecution, over 50, people are being tortured in labour camps for their beliefs.
Despite suffering both physical and emotional abuse, these believers are holding onto the promises of God and the scriptures. Five years ago, the New Testament was translated for this country, and this year, the Old Testament has been completed. For the first time in 4o years, believers in this country are able to read the entire Bible in their own dialect so that they can learn more about God and find comfort in times of trial.
The Roman religion was not intolerant; Rome had accepted into its pantheon deities from the Italian tribes and from Asia Minor. Despite this toleration, by the early second century the Roman governor of Bithynia on the Black Sea had no hesitation in sending to immediate execution those who had been denounced as being Christians.
The name alone was a sufficient death warrant. Persecution did not begin with the Roman authorities. Indeed, the writer of Luke-Acts appears to go out of his way to reassure the Roman authorizes of the loyalty and general value of the Christians and the hostility of the Jews toward them. The persecutors and their motives changed in A.
On July 19 that year a great fire engulfed much of Rome; only four of the fourteen quarters of the city escaped damage. Suspicion immediately fell on Emperor Nero: was this a madcap way of clearing part of the city to make room for new, magnificent streets and buildings in his honor?
Nero, however, managed to deflect blame first, apparently, on the Jews, who had a reputation for large-scale arson but also had friends at court; and then onto the Christians. Many Christians perhaps including Peter were seized, tortured, and done to death in the arena. Tacitus, writing in c. Another 30 years pass before we hear of further action against the Christians, and then the evidence is not watertight. The veil is lifted, however, about 15 years later.
He toured the province and when he reached the far east end, near Amastris, he encountered Christians. Pliny, though a lawyer by profession, had never been at a trial of Christians. Trajan responded in an ambiguous but fair-minded way. Twelve years later in — , Christian gained a further concession.
Anti-Christian riots had broken out in the province of Asia western Asia Minor in —, and the governor had written to Emperor Hadrian for advice. The rescript helped protect Christians, for now the emphasis was less on their name than on specific misdeeds.
Christians might be unpopular, and their cult technically illegal, but it would take a bold man to file an accusation that, if in any way flawed, could rebound with serious consequences. An accuser also had to await the arrival of the one senior of ficial the proconsul able to try a capital case in the large province of Asia. Between and , Christians enjoyed a precarious toleration. Few martyrdoms are recorded in this era of prosperity that marked the climax of the Greco-Roman achievement.
With the accession of Marcus Aurelius as emperor in , however, the situation changed. First, the Christians were becoming exceedingly unpopular; they were blamed for causing natural disasters by refusing to worship the deities that protected communities. Christians were also accused of immorality, unnatural vice, and black magic, all calculated to bring the rest of the population into peril.
Other Christians had been seized, tried, and executed before Polycarp was arrested. One, a Phrygian, had rushed toward martyrdom—only to recant at the sight of the beasts in the amphitheater. Curse Christ. Between the two outlooks there was little room for compromise. In one terrible pogrom at Lyon in Gaul [modern France] in , forty-eight Christians were done to death in the amphitheater.
Though it remained illegal, the church was now much stronger than in the previous century. Christians were consolidated around urban communities governed by bishops, who were in frequent contact by letter with one another.
The church had its own liturgy, its own sacred writings separate from those of the Jews, and established rules of faith on which orthodox doctrines could be built. It also had begun to acquire property the Areae , or cemeteries; and in Rome, the earliest catacombs date to c. Most important, the church had recovered its missionary urge, which after St. Paul and his disciples seems to have diminished through much of the second century. The result was great tension between Christians and pagans in provinces where the church was strong.
The recorded victims of persecution were mainly converts—such as Perpetua and Felicitas in Carthage martryed March 7, , or the disciples of Origen in Alexandria. The bishops and clergy seem not to have been affected. This was followed, however, by 12 years of calm in which the church expanded, extended its catacombs in Rome, and through its great teacher Origen — , established for the first time an intellectual superiority over its pagan contemporaries. Origen, however, perceived the danger of the situation.
There might not have been many martyrs to date, but persecution, if it came now, would be on a worldwide scale. He was right. Under the emperor Decius — the church experienced what, in retrospect, was its most severe test. Decius had come to power at a moment of grave military threat from the Goths, and economic and social decline in the cities. He blamed his predecessor, Philip, for military incompetence and the Christians, whom he believed Philip had favored, for the breakdown of morale in the Empire.
Decius combined this move, evidently, with an order probably in December to seize leading Christians. By January 20, , Pope Fabian had been tried before the emperor himself and sentenced to be executed.
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