Persecution of Christians

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The persecution of Christians is religious persecution that Christians sometimes undergo as a consequence of professing their faith, both historically and in the current era. In the two thousand years of the Christian faith, about 70 million believers have been killed for their faith, of whom 45.5 million or 65% were in the twentieth century according to "The New Persecuted" ("I Nuovi Perseguitati").^[1] Currently, persecution of Christians is most severe in North Korea. ^[2]

Contents 1 Persecution of Christians in the New Testament 2 Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire 2.1 Rise of persecution in the Roman Empire 2.1.1 Persecution under Nero, 64-68 A.D. 2.1.2 Persecution from the second century to Constantine 2.1.3 The Great Persecution 3 Persecutions of early Christians outside the Roman Empire 4 Persecution of Christians by Christians 4.1 Anti-Catholic 4.2 Anti-Protestant 4.3 Persecution of the Anabaptists 4.4 Anti-Mormon 5 Muslim persecution of Christians 5.1 Ottoman Empire 5.2 Turkey 5.3 Persecution of Christians in Iraq 5.4 Persecution of Christians in Kosovo 5.5 Christian casualties of the War in Lebanon 5.6 Persecution of Christians in Sudan 5.7 Persecution of Christians in Pakistan 5.7.1 Blasphemy laws 5.7.2 Attacks on Pakistani Christians by Islamists 5.8 Attacks on Christians by Islamists in Indonesia 5.9 Discrimination and persecution in other Muslim nations 6 The Dechristianization program during the French Revolution 7 Persecution in Communist nations 7.1 Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union 7.2 Persecution in other Eastern Bloc nations 7.3 Persecution of Christians in North Korea 8 Persecution in Nazi-Fascist nations 9 Persecution of Christians in China 9.1 Early Persecution 9.2 People's Republic of China 10 Persecution of Christians in 19th Century Korea 11 Persecution of Christians in Japan 11.1 Edo Period 11.2 Meiji Revolution and WWII 11.3 1945 onwards 12 19th and 20th Century Mexico 13 During the Spanish Civil War 14 Persecution of Christians in India 14.1 By national and state governments 14.2 By Hindus 14.3 By Muslims 15 Persecution of Christians in Africa 16 Recent Christian persecution in other countries 17 References 18 Sources 19 See also 20 External links

[edit] Persecution of Christians in the New Testament

Religious discrimination and persecution
By victimized group: Anti-clericalism African religions · Atheists Bahá'ís · Buddhists · Cathars Religion in China · Christians Hellenistic religions · Hindus Jehovah's Witnesses · Jews Mormons · Muslims · Neopagans Rastafari · Zoroastrians
By method: Censorship · Desecration Genocide · Forced conversion · Pogrom War · Discrimination · Fascism Intolerance · Terrorism Segregation · Violence · Abuse State atheism
Historical events Dechristianisation in the French Revolution Revolt in the Vendee · Cristero War Red Terror · Red Terror in Spain Cultural Revolution · Reign of Terror Inquisition · French Wars of Religion St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre Khmer Rouge · Kulturkampf This box: view • talk • edit

Main article: Persecution of Christians in the New Testament

Early Christianity, which began within ancient Judaism, arose out of the Nazarene schism, dividing the followers of Jesus, the Nazarenes, from the Jewish majority, the Pharisees. According to Walter Laqueur, these Nazarenes did not break with the religious laws and rituals of the ancient Hebrews, "this came only with the appearance of Paulus, who had not known Jesus. From this point on, Christianity was the new Israel."^[3]

The New Testament relates the Christian accounts of the Pharisee rejection of Jesus and accusations of the Pharisee responsibility for his crucifixion. The Acts of the Apostles depicts instances of early Christian persecution by the Sanhedrin, the Hebrew religious establishment of the time.^[4] This theme plays an important part in a number of Christian doctrines ranging from the release of Christians from obeying the many strictures of the Old Testament Law (see Antinomianism) to the commandment to preach to all nations meaning to Gentiles as well as the Hebrew people (see Great Commission).

Reliable evidence of events accompanying the schism between the Pharisees and the Nazarenes is not available. Laqueur argues that hostility grew over the generations. By the Fourth century John Chrysostom was arguing that the Pharisees alone, not the Romans, were responsible for the murder of Christ. However, according to Laqueur: "Absolving Pilate from guilt may have been connected with the missionary activities of early Christianity in Rome and the desire not to antagonize those they want to convert."^[5]

At least by the fourth century, the consensus amongst scholars is that persecution by Jews of Christians has been traditionally overstated; according to James Everett Seaver,

Much of Christian hatred toward the Jews was based on the popular misconception... that the Jews had been the active persecutors of Christians for many centuries... The... examination of the sources for fourth century Jewish history will show that the universal, tenacious, and malicious Jewish hatred of Christianity referred to by the church fathers and countless others has no existence in historical fact. The generalizations of patristic writers in support of the accusation have been wrongly interpreted from the fourth century to the present day. That individual Jews hated and reviled the Christians there can be no doubt, but there is no evidence that the Jews as a class hated and persecuted the Christians as a class during the early years of the fourth century.^[6]

According to the New Testament, Jesus' death was demanded by the Pharisee Sanhedrin and Roman authorities acquiesced, carrying out a Roman sentence of crucifixion. The New Testament also records that the first martyr was Stephen, who was stoned by the Jews, Saul heartily agreeing (the man who later converted and was renamed "Paul.") The New Testament goes on to say that Paul was himself imprisoned on several occasions by the Roman authorities, stoned by Pharisees and left for dead on one occasion, and was eventually taken as a prisoner to Rome. Peter and others were also imprisoned, beatened and generally harassed. Because of severe persecution in Jerusalem, most of the Nazarenes were forced to leave. James was said to have been put to death around that time.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs reports that, of the eleven remaining Apostles (since Judas Iscariot had already killed himself), only one- John, the son of Zebedee and Salome, the younger brother of James and the writer of the Book of Revelation- died of natural causes in exile. The other ten were reportedly martyred by various means including beheading, by sword and spear and, in the case of Peter, crucifixion upside down following the execution of his wife.

[edit] Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire

Main article: Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire

[edit] Rise of persecution in the Roman Empire

[edit] Persecution under Nero, 64-68 A.D.

Main article: Great Fire of Rome

The first documented case of imperially-supervised persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire begins with Nero (37-68). In 64 A.D., a great fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city and economically devastating the Roman population. Nero himself was suspected as the arsonist by historian Suetonius, claiming he played the lyre and sang the 'Sack of Ilium' during the fires. In his Annals, Tacitus (who claimed Nero was in Antium at the time of the fire's outbreak), stated that "to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace" (Tacit. Annals XV, see Tacitus on Jesus).

[edit] Persecution from the second century to Constantine

By the mid 2nd century, mobs could be found willing to throw stones at Christians, and they might be mobilized by rival sects. The Persecution in Lyon was preceded by mob violence, including assaults, robberies and stonings (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.1.7).

Further state persecutions were desultory until the third century, though Tertullian's Apologeticus of 197 was ostensibly written in defense of persecuted Christians and addressed to Roman governors^[7] The "edict of Septimius Severus" familiar in Christian history is doubted by some secular historians to have existed outside Christian martyrology.

The first documentable Empire-wide persecution took place under Maximin, though only the clergy were sought out. It was not until Decius during the mid-century that a persecution of Christian laity across the Empire took place. Christian sources aver that a decree was issued requiring public sacrifice, a formality equivalent to a testimonial of allegiance to the Emperor and the established order. Decius authorized roving commissions visiting the cities and villages to supervise the execution of the sacrifices and to deliver written certificates to all citizens who performed them. Christians were often given opportunities to avoid further punishment by publicly offering sacrifices or burning incense to Roman gods, and were accused by the Romans of impiety when they refused. Refusal was punished by arrest, imprisonment, torture, and executions. Christians fled to safe havens in the countryside and some purchased their certificates, called libelli. Several councils held at Carthage debated the extent to which the community should accept these lapsed Christians.

[edit] The Great Persecution

Main article: Diocletian Persecution

The persecutions culminated with Diocletian and Galerius at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century. Their persecution, the Great Persecution is considered the largest. Beginning with a series of four edicts banning Christian practices and ordering the imprisonment of Christian clergy, the persecution intensified until all Christians in the empire were commandeded to sacrifice to the gods or face immediate execution. However, as Diocletian zealously persecuted Christians in the Eastern part of the empire, his co-emperors in the West did not follow the edicts and so Christians in Gaul, Spain, and Brittania were virtually unmolested.

This persecution was to be the last, as Constantine I soon came into power and in 313 legalized Christianity. It was not until Theodosius I in the latter fourth century that Christianity would become the official religion of the Empire.

Some early Christians sought out and welcomed martyrdom. Roman authorities tried hard to avoid Christians because they "goaded, chided, belittled and insulted the crowds until they demanded their death."¹⁹³ One man shouted to the Roman officials: "I want to die! I am a Christian," leading the officials to respond: "If they wanted to kill themselves, there was plenty of cliffs they could jump off."¹⁹⁴ Such seeking after death is found in Tertullian's Scorpiace but was certainly not the only view of martyrdom in the Christian church. Both Polycarp and Cyprian, bishops in Smyrna and Carthage respectively, attempted to avoid martyrdom.

The conditions under which martyrdom was an acceptable fate or under which it was suicidally embraced occupied writers of the early Christian Church. Broadly speaking, martyrs were considered uniquely exemplary of the Christian faith, and few early saints were not also martyrs.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states that "Ancient, medieval and early modern hagiographers were inclined to exaggerate the number of martyrs. Since the title of martyr is the highest title to which a Christian can aspire, this tendency is natural". Estimates of Christians killed for religious reasons before the year 313 vary greatly, depending on the scholar quoted, from a high of almost 100,000 to a low of 10,000.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Persecutions of early Christians outside the Roman Empire

In 337 a spate in the ongoing hostilities between Sassanid Persia and the Roman Empire led to anti-Christian persecutions by the Persians of Christians, see also Sassanid Church, who were perceived as potentially treacherous friends to a Christianized Rome, see also Christendom, under Constantine.^{[citation needed]} In 341, Shapur II ordered the massacre of all Christians in Persia. Over the next few decades, thousands of Christians died.^{[citation needed]} In the 3rd and 4th centuries, Christian missionaries (most successfully Ulfilas) converted the Goths to Arian Christianity. Some Goths saw this as an attack on their religion and culture.^{[citation needed]} In response, the Terving King Athanaric began persecuting Christians, many of whom were killed.^[8]

In 429 the Vandals (who were Arians) conquered Roman Africa. Catholics were discriminated against; Church property was confiscated. Thousands of Catholics were banished from Vandal held territory.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Persecution of Christians by Christians

As with many religions, Christianity is not a homogenous group; there exist many sects of Christianity, which often find themselves at odds with each other, often because one group does not consider another Christian at all, as is the case with Mormons and mainstream Christians (see below).

The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions a Natalius,^[9] before Hippolytus, as first Antipope, who, according to Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History 5.28.8-12, quoting the Little Labyrinth of Hippolytus, after being "scourged all night by the holy angels", covered in ash, dressed in sackcloth, and "after some difficulty", tearfully submitted to Pope Zephyrinus.

Upon the establishment of official ties between the state and Christianity, the state and the Church turned their considerable negative attention to those deemed heretics, although who was and was not a heretic could alter with the winds of political change. The first nonconforming Christian executed was Priscillian. Many 4th century examples of such a situation involved Arianism, which held, against the orthodox tradition, that Jesus was not "one in unity with the Father", but instead was a created being, not on the same level with God, above humans but below God the Father.

When high-ranking officials agreed with orthodoxy, the state stopped at no ends to bring down the Arians. The converse was true when high-ranking officials, instead, adhered to Arianism, at which point the power of the state was used to promulgate that particular interpretation. The Germanic Goths and Vandals adhered to Arian Christianity, establishing Arian states in Italy and Spain. Orthodox Christians defended themselves vigorously against these foreign Arians. St. Augustine, for example, died while in a town besieged by the Arian Vandals.

An increasing number of scholars have claimed that Early Christianity had no single agreed-upon tradition, and various sects claimed no limit of things about Jesus, God, and the universe, but the extent of this "proto-Christian" diversity can be a matter of debate. Some scholarly opinion adheres to the picture of a continual line of theological orthodoxy, but the early sources, such as Celsus, Origen, Arius, Irenaeus, and Marcion, suggest a world of Christianity far more colorful than the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers painted. This must be contrasted against Irenaeus' claim in Against Heresies that the church had an overall orthodoxy.

In the medieval period the Roman Catholic church moved to suppress the Cathar heresy, the Pope having sanctioned a crusade against the Albigensians; during the course of which the massacre of Beziers took place, with between seven and twenty thousand deaths. (This was the occasion when the papal legate, Arnaud Amalric, asked about how Catholics could be distinguished from Cathars once the city fell, famously replied, "Kill them all, God will know His own.")

The Crusades in the Middle East also spilled over into conquest of Eastern Orthodox Christians by Roman Catholics and attempted suppression of the Orthodox Church. The Waldenses were as well persecuted by the Catholic Church, but survive up to this day. The Reformation led to a long period of warfare and communal violence between Catholic and Protestant factions, leading to massacres and forced suppression of the alternative views by the dominant faction in many countries. In the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre the French king ordered the murder of Protestants in France.

In the modern period, such events include violence between Mormons and Protestants in the United States during the 19th century. That century also saw the martyrdom of St. Peter the Aleut at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy in San Francisco, California.

[edit] Anti-Catholic

Main article: Anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholicism officially began in 1534 during the English Reformation; the Act of Supremacy made the King of England the 'only supreme head on earth of the Church in England.' Any act of allegiance to the latter was considered treason. It was under this act that Thomas More was executed. Queen Elizabeth I's scorn for Jesuit missionaries led to many executions at Tyburn. Catholic / Protestant strife has been blamed for much of "The Troubles," the ongoing struggle in Northern Ireland.

This attitude was carried "across the pond" to the American colonies, which would leave England, forming the United States. Although there has been a strong anti-Catholic sentiment in North America since before the dawn of the US, the feeling grew stronger during waves of Catholic immigration from old Europe. Nationalist, "native" feeling was represented by the Know-Nothing Party. Father James Coyle, a Roman Catholic priest, was murdered in 1921 by the Ku Klux Klan.

[edit] Anti-Protestant

Main article: Anti-Protestantism

Anti-Protestantism originated in a reaction by the Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Protestants were denounced as heretics and subject to persecution in those territories, such as Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, in which the Catholics were the dominant power. This movement was orchestrated by Popes and Princes as the Counter Reformation. This resulted in religious wars and eruptions of sectarian hatred such as the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

[edit] Persecution of the Anabaptists

Main article: Anabaptist

When the disputes between Lutherans and Roman Catholics gained a political dimension, both groups saw other groups of religious dissidents that were arising as a danger to their own security. The early "Täufer" (lit. "Baptists") were mistrusted and rejected by both religio-political parties. Religious persecution is often perpetrated as a means of political control, and this becomes evident with the Treaty of Augsburg in 1555. This treaty provided the legal groundwork for persecution of the Anabaptists.

[edit] Anti-Mormon

Main article: Anti-Mormonism

Followers of the Latter Day Saint movement (commonly known as Mormons) have been persecuted since the faith's creation in the 1830s. This drove the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from New York to Missouri, where escalating attacks by neighboring villages caused them to flee to Nauvoo, Illinois. However hostilities between Mormons, non-Mormons and former Mormons would soon escalate. After a mob was let into the jail in Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph Smith was being held on charges of committing treason against the state of Illinois, a gun fight ensued and as a result Smith was killed.^[10][11] This caused an exodus by the Latter-day Saints to Utah, which was not a part of the United States at the time.

[edit] Muslim persecution of Christians

Main article: Islam and anti-Christian persecution

[edit] Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman government that arose from the ashes of the Byzantine Empire instituted Islam as the new official religion. Islam recognizes Jesus as a great prophet, and tolerates Christians as another People of the Book. As such, the Church was not extinguished nor was its canonical and hierarchical organization significantly disrupted. Its administration continued to function. One of the first things that Mehmet the Conqueror did was to allow the Church to elect a new patriarch, Gennadius Scholarius. The Hagia Sophia and the Parthenon, which had been Christian churches for nearly a millennium were converted into mosques, although countless other churches, both in Constantinople and elsewhere, remained in Christian hands. Moreover, it is striking that the patriarch's and the hierarchy's position was considerably strengthened and their power increased. They were endowed with civil as well as ecclesiastical power over all Christians in Ottoman territories. Because Islamic law makes no distinction between nationality and religion, all Christians, regardless of their language or nationality, were considered a single millet, or nation. The patriarch, as the highest ranking hierarch, was thus invested with civil and religious authority and made ethnarch, head of the entire Christian Orthodox population. Practically, this meant that all Orthodox Churches within Ottoman territory were under the control of Constantinople. Thus, the authority and jurisdictional frontiers of the patriarch were enormously enlarged.

These rights and privileges (see Dhimmitude), including freedom of worship and religious organization, were often established in principle but seldom corresponded to reality. The legal privileges of the patriarch and the Church depended, in fact, on the whim and mercy of the Sultan and the Sublime Porte, while all Christians were viewed as little more than second-class citizens. Moreover, Turkish corruption and brutality were not a myth. That it was the "infidel" Christian who experienced this more than anyone else is not in doubt. Nor were pogroms of Christians in these centuries unknown (see Greco-Turkish relations).^{[12] [13]}Devastating, too, for the Church was the fact that it could not bear witness to Christ. Missionary work among Moslems was dangerous and indeed impossible, whereas conversion to Islam was entirely legal and permissible. Converts to Islam who returned to Orthodoxy were put to death as apostates. No new churches could be built and even the ringing of church bells was prohibited.^{[citation needed]} Education of the clergy and the Christian population either ceased altogether or was reduced to the most rudimentary elements.

The Ottoman Empire was marked by periods of limited tolerance and periods of often bloody repression of non-Muslims.^{[citation needed]} The Janissary army corps consisted of young men who were brought to Istanbul as child-slaves (and were often from Christian households) who were converted, trained and later employed by the Sultan (the devshirme system).

[edit] Turkey

Main articles: Armenian Genocide, Pontic Greek Genocide, and Assyrian Genocide

Things worsened after the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I. Nationalist movements like the Young Turks began persecuting and murdering Greek, Armenian, Assyrian and other Christians in what are known as the Armenian, the Pontic Greek and the Assyrian Genocides. This mass murder of Christians is fairly unknown today outside Greece and Armenia, despite taking place not very long ago (1915-1922). It is claimed that 1,500,000 Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and another 350,000 Greeks were murdered and most had to abandon regions inhabited by them for thousands of years.

The Istanbul pogrom was a state-sponsored and state-orchestrated pogrom that compelled Greek Christians to leave Constantinople (Turkish Istanbul), the first Christian city in violation to the Treaty of Lausanne (see Istanbul Pogrom). The issue of Christian genocides by the Turks may become a problem, since Turkey wishes to join the European Union.^[14] The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is still in a difficult position. Turkey requires by law that the Ecumenical Patriarch must be an ethnic Greek, holding Turkish citizenship by birth, although most of the Greek minority has been expelled. The state's expropriation of church property and the closing of the Orthodox Theological School of Halki are also difficulties faced by the Church of Constantinople. Despite appeals from the United States, the European Union and various governmental and non-governmental organizations, the School remains closed since 1971. Persecution of Christians is continuing in modern Turkey. On February 5, 2006, the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro was murdered in Trabzon by a student influenced by the massive anti-Christian propaganda in the Turkish popular press^[15], following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. On April 18, 2007, 3 Christians were brutally murdered in Malatya ^[16][17], the hometown of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981.

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Iraq

Although Christians represent less than 5% of the total Iraqi population, they make up 40% of the refugees now living in nearby countries, according to UNHCR.^[18][19] Northern Iraq remained predominantly Christian until the destructions of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century. The Church of the East has its origin in what is now South East Turkey. By the end of the 13th century there were twelve Nestorian dioceses in a strip from Peking to Samarkand. When the 14th-century Muslim warlord of Turco-Mongol descent, Tamerlane (Timul Lenk), conquered Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria, the civilian population was decimated. Timur Lenk had 70,000 Assyrian Christians beheaded in Tikrit, and 90,000 more in Baghdad.^[20][21]

Ethnic Assyrians (most of whom are adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East) account for most of Iraq's sizable Christian population, along with Armenians.

In the 16th century, Christians were half the population of Iraq.^[22] In 1987, the last Iraqi census counted 1.4 million Christians.^[23] They were tolerated under the secular regime of Saddam Hussein, who even made one of them, Tariq Aziz, his deputy. Recently, Christians have seen their total numbers slump to about 500,000 today, of whom 250,000 live in Baghdad.^[24] An exodus to the neighboring countries of Syria, Jordan and Turkey has left behind closed parishes, seminaries and convents. As a small minority without a militia of their own, Iraqi Christians have been persecuted by both Shi’a and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs.^[25][26]

As of June 21, 2007, the UNHCR estimated that 2.2 million Iraqis had been displaced to neighboring countries, and 2 million were displaced internally, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month.^[27][28] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.^[29]

One of the most recent tragic events of the present Iraqi situation for the Christian community is the assassination by Islamic terrorists of Chaldean Catholic priest Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni and subdeacons Basman Yousef Daud, Wahid Hanna Isho, and Gassan Isam Bidawed in the ancient city of Mosul.^[30] Fr. Ragheed Aziz Ganni was driving with his three deacons when they were stopped by Muslim terrorists who demanded their conversion to Islam, when they refused the terrorists shot them.^[30]

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Kosovo

After the defeat of a Christian Balkan coalition lead by a prince of Serbia, Lazar, the Ottomans occupied Kosovo. The Christian population of Kosovo was composed overwhelmingly of Serbs (see Demographic history of Kosovo). Initially, former Christian nobles were allowed to maintain their properties and privileges, especially the local nobles that fought on the side of the Ottomans during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The Orthodox and Catholic churches of Kosovo during the Ottoman period were awarded special protections and rights including placing Christians under the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople[1]. Persecution of Christians has been primarily directed towards Serbian Orthodox believers. The ongoing ethnic conflict in Kosovo has resulted in the destruction of 56 Serb Orthodox Christian churches, monasteries, graveyards and other religious monuments, some of them being of great historical and architectural importance. The latest wave of anti-Serb violence was in March 2004 (see Unrest in Kosovo).

[edit] Christian casualties of the War in Lebanon

The war in Lebanon saw a number of massacres of both Christians and Muslims. Among the earliest was the Damour Massacre in 1975 when Palestinian militias attacked Christian civilians. The persecution in Lebanon combined sectarian, political, ideological, and retaliation reasons. The Syrian regime was also involved in persecuting Christians as well as Muslims in Lebanon.^[31][32]

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Sudan

There is an abundance of evidence since the early 1990s of oppression and persecution of Christians, including by Sudan's own Sudan Human Rights Organization, which in mid-1992 reported on forcible closure of churches, expulsion of priests, forced displacement of populations, forced Islamisation and Arabisation, and other repressive measures of the Government. In 1994 it also reported on widespread torture, ethnic cleansing and crucifixion of pastors. Pax Christi has also reported on detailed cases in 1994, as has Africa Watch. Roman Catholic bishop Macram Max Gassis, Bishop of El Obeid, also reported to the Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva, in February 1994 on accounts of widespread destruction of hundreds of churches, forced conversions of Christians to Islam, concentration camps, genocide of the Nuba people, systematic rape of women, enslavement of children, torture of priests and clerics, burning alive of pastors and catechists, crucifixion and mutilation of priests. The foregoing therefore serve to indict the Sudanese Government itself for flagrant violations of human rights and religious freedom.

In addition, it is estimated that over 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim militia, and even suspected Islamists in northern Sudan since 1984.[2]

It should also be noted that Sudan's several civil wars (which often take the form of genocidal campaigns) are often not only or purely religious in nature, but also ethnic, as many black Muslims, as well as Muslim Arab tribesmen, have also been killed in the conflicts.

It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.^[33][34]

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Pakistan

[edit] Blasphemy laws

In Pakistan 1.5% of the population are Christian. Pakistani law mandates that "blasphemies" of the Qur'an are to be met with punishment. On July 28, 1994 Amnesty International urged Pakistan's Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, to change the law because it was being used to terrorize religious minorities. She tried but was unsuccessful. However, she modified the laws to make them more moderate. Her changes were reversed by the Nawaz Sharif administration which was backed by Muslim fundamentalists.^{[citation needed]}

Ayub Masih, a Christian, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death in 1998. He was accused by a neighbor of stating that he supported British writer, Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Lower appeals courts upheld the conviction. However, before the Pakistan Supreme Court, his lawyer was able to prove that the accuser had used the conviction to force Masih's family off their land and then acquired control of the property. Masih has been released.^[35]

On September 22, 2006 a Pakistani Christian named Shahid Masih was arrested and jailed for allegedly violating Islamic "blasphemy laws" in Pakistan. He is presently held in confinement and has expressed fear of reprisals by Islamic Fundamentalists.^[36]

[edit] Attacks on Pakistani Christians by Islamists

The Christian community in Pakistan is frequently the target of attacks by Islamic extremists.^[37]

On October 28, 2001 in Lahore, Pakistan, Islamic militants killed 15 Christians at a church.

On September 25, 2002 two terrorists entered the "Peace and Justice Institute", Karachi, where they separated Muslims from the Christians, and then executed eight Christians by shooting them in the head [3]. All of the victims were Pakistani Christians. Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil said the victims had their hands tied and their mouths had been covered with tape.

In November 2005 3,000 militant Islamists attacked Christians in Sangla Hill in Pakistan and destroyed Roman Catholic, Salvation Army and United Presbyterian churches. The attack was over allegations of violation of blasphemy laws by a Pakistani Christian named Yousaf Masih. The attacks were widely condemned by some political parties in Pakistan.^[38] However, Pakistani Christians have expressed disappointment that they have not received justice. Samson Dilawar, a parish priest in Sangla Hill, has said that the police have not committed to trial any of the people who were arrested for committing the assaults, and that the Pakistani government did not inform the Christian community that a judicial inquiry was underway by a local judge. He continued to say that Muslim clerics "make hateful speeches about Christians" and "continue insulting Christians and our faith".^[39]

In February 2006 churches and Christian schools were targeted in protests over the publications of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in Denmark, leaving two elderly women injured and many homes and properties destroyed. Some of the mobs were stopped by police.^[40]

On June 5, 2006 a Pakistani Christian stonemason named Nasir Ashraf was working near Lahore when he drank water from a public facility using a glass chained to the facility. He was assaulted by Muslims for "Polluting the glass". A mob developed, who beat Ashraf, calling him a "Christian dog". Bystanders encouraged the beating and joined in. Ashraf was eventually hospitalized.^[41][42]

In August of 2006, a church and Christian homes were attacked in a village outside of Lahore, Pakistan in a land dispute. Three Christians were seriously injured and one missing after some 35 Muslims burned buildings, desecrated Bibles and attacked Christians.^[43]

One year later, in August 2007, a Christian missionary couple, Rev. Arif and Kathleen Khan, were gunned down by militant Islamists in Islamabad. The "official" position in Pakistan is that the killer was a fellow Christian, and that the killings were "justified" as an honor killing under the false pretext that the missionaries were engaged in sexual harassment, an assertion widely doubted in the international media, as well as by Pakistani Christians. [4][5] [6]

Based, in part, on such incidents, Pakistan was recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in May 2006 to be designated as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) by the Department of State.^[43]

[edit] Attacks on Christians by Islamists in Indonesia

Religious conflicts have typically occurred in western New Guinea, Maluku (particularly Ambon), and Sulawesi. The presence of Muslims in these regions is largely due to Suharto's transmigrasi plan of population re-distribution. Conflicts have often occurred because of the aims of radical Islamist organizations such as Jemaah Islamiah or Laskar Jihad to impose Sharia. The following list is far from comprehensive:

• 1998 - 500 Christian churches burned down in Java.
• November, 1998 - 22 churches in Jakarta are burned down. 13 Christians killed.
• Christmas Day 1998 - 180 homes and stores owned by Christians are destroyed in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
• Easter 2000 - 800 homes and stores owned by Christians are destroyed in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
• May 23, 2000 - Christians fight back against a Muslim mob. 700 people die.
• June, 2001 - the Laskar Jihad declares Jihad against Christians. Muslim citizens are recruited by the thousands to exterminate Christians.
• May 28, 2005 - A bomb is exploded in a crowded market in Tentena, killing 28. This marks the highest death toll due to bombing after the devastating attacks in Bali.^[44]
• October 29, 2005 three school girls were found beheaded near Poso. The girls, students at Central Sulawesi Christian Church, were killed by six unidentified assailants while on their way to class.

[edit] Discrimination and persecution in other Muslim nations

In Saudi Arabia Christians are arrested and lashed in public for practicing their faith openly.^[45] Bibles and other non-Muslim religious books are captured, piled up and burned by the religious police of Saudi. No non-Muslims are allowed to become Saudi citizens. Prayer services by Christians are frequently broken up by the police and the Christians are arrested and tortured without even allowing them to be released on bail.

In Egypt the government does not officially recognize conversions from Islam to Christianity; because certain interfaith marriages are not allowed either, this prevents marriages between converts to Christianity and those born in Christian communities, and also results in the children of Christian converts being classified as Muslims and given a Muslim education. The government also requires permits for repairing churches or building new ones, which are often withheld. Foreign missionaries are allowed in the country only if they restrict their activities to social improvements and refrain from proselytizing. The Coptic Pope Shenouda III was internally exiled in 1981 by President Anwar Sadat, who then chose five Coptic bishops and asked them to choose a new pope. They refused, and in 1985 President Hosni Mubarak restored Pope Shenouda III, who had been accused of fomenting interconfessional strife. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the rise in extremist Islamist groups such as the Gama'at Islamiya during the 1980s was accompanied by attacks on Copts and on Coptic churches; these have since declined with the decline of those organizations, but still continue. The police have been accused of siding with the attackers in some of these cases.^[46] Nevertheless, high-ranking government officials in Egypt have included Copts like Boutros Ghali and his grandson, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

There have been anti-Christian incidents carried out in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority. Some claim that this represents a pattern of deliberate mistreatment by the PA;^[47] others hold that these are isolated incidents that reflect the beliefs of the individuals involved, but not the society in general.^[48][49] Two American courts, one in Illinois and the other in North Carolina, accepted the threat of "religious persecution" as grounds for granting asylum to Evangelical converts fleeing PA territory. There is an ongoing trend for emigration among Palestinian Christians doubling that of Muslims. The ratio of Christians among Palestinians went from 18%-20% in 1947 to 13% in 1966 to 2.1% in 1993.^[50] Among the causes there are the insecurity of living under Israeli rule after the 1967 Six Day War,^{[citation needed]} the comparatively warmer welcome that Christians have in the Americas and the rise of Islamism in Palestine politics

Though Iran recognizes Assyrian and Armenian Christians as a religious minority (along with Jews and Zoroastrians) and they have representatives in the Parliament, after the 1979 Revolution, Muslim converts to Christianity (typically to Protestant Christianity) have been arrested and sometimes executed. ^[51] See also: Christianity in Iran.

In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf has attacked and killed Christians.^[52]

Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old Afghan citizen, was charged in Afghanistan with rejecting Islam (apostasy), a crime punishable by death under Sharia law. He has since been released into exile in the West under intense pressure from Western governments.^[53][54]

[edit] The Dechristianization program during the French Revolution

Main article: Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution

During the time of the French revolution, a programme against Christianity was waged. It included execution of Catholic clergy.

[edit] Persecution in Communist nations

[edit] Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union

Further information: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union and Human rights in the Soviet Union

After the Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks undertook a massive program to remove the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church from the government and Russian society, and to make the state atheist. Thousands of churches were destroyed or converted to other uses, and many members of clergy were imprisoned for anti-government activities. An extensive education and propaganda campaign was undertaken to convince people, especially the children and youth, to abandon religious beliefs. The Communist persecution of the Church proved enormously successful. Within the span of one generation, the traditionally devout Russian people became overwhelmingly atheist. As such, it ranks as one of the greatest and the most successful persecutions Christianity had ever experienced, on par only with the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia Minor by the Islamic and Turkish conquests.

[edit] Persecution in other Eastern Bloc nations

Further information: Persecution of Christians in Warsaw Pact countries

Enver Hoxha conducted a campaign to extinguish all forms of religion in Albania in 1967, closing all religious buildings and declaring the state atheist. Albania was the only Eastern Bloc nation that actually outlawed religion. See Communist and post-Communist Albania.^{[citation needed]}

However, persecution of Christians, especially Protestants, Pentecostals and non-registered minority denominations, has continued after the fall of the Soviet Union, in many countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, notably Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.

[edit] Persecution of Christians in North Korea

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Persecution of Christians is currently the worst in North Korea.^[55] About 300,000 Christians have been killed in North Korea since 1953.^[56] About 100,000 are in the country's labour camps enduring torture and starvation. ^[57] The atheist state singles out the Christian prisoners for particularly severe treatment. ^[58]

[edit] Persecution in Nazi-Fascist nations

Although far less hostile to Christianity than to Judaism, which the Nazis sought to exterminate throughout the Third Reich and lands that came under Nazi rule, Nazi totalitarianism demanded that all religious activity conform to the desires of Nazi leadership. Christian churches were obliged to accept the racist doctrines of Nazism. The Gestapo monitored Christian clergy and congregations for any semblance of dissent with Nazi policies, and many Christian clergy and laymen ended up in concentration camps when they asserted opposition to the teachings and practices of Nazism or if they acted upon pacifist convictions (like many Jehovah's Witnesses and some Confessing Church members). During the early part of the Nazi rule, the "German Christians" were an important pseudo-Protestant tool of the regime to bring about the Gleichschaltung of the churches.

The expansion of Nazi Germany and the establishment of Nazi rule in occupied countries brought about persecutions ranging from those characteristic in Germany itself to conditions approaching those of the Soviet Union. Catholic priests in Poland that were opposed to the Nazis were taken to the concentration camps; about 3,000 catholic priests were murdered in the liquidation of the Polish intelligentsia. Due to its long historical association with Slavic cultures, Nazi occupation officials used collaborators such as the Roman Catholic Ustashe to specifically target Eastern Orthodox Christians in Yugoslavia. Roman Catholics were heavily persecuted in Nazi Germany because of their opposing views on Nazi eugenics and racial hatred.

In Italy the fascist regime of Mussolini persecuted Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses and other Protestant groups following the Lateran Accords with the Roman Catholic church. In 1935, the interior minister Guido Buffarini Guidi ordered the complete break-up of the Pentecostalist network in Italy.^[59]

[edit] Persecution of Christians in China

[edit] Early Persecution

Main article: History of Persecution of Christians

The queen Wu-Hou (Wu Chao) established Buddhism as the state religion in AD 691 and persecuted the Christians. Tang Wu Zong (of the Tang dynasty) ruled China from 840 to 846. Known as a Taoist zealot, he first suppressed Buddhism in China for its perceived status as a "foreign" religion. He then attacked all other "foreign" religions, including Christianity. Nestorianism, the only Chinese Christian branch at that time, was virtually wiped out in China. There is not much contemporaneous evidence of direct religious persecution, but later writers believed those associated with Mongols, whether Christian or Muslim, were massacred with their patrons. When Jiaqing Emperor of China declared the closed-door policy, Christianity suffered the first repercussions under the Qing Dynasty.

[edit] People's Republic of China

Main article: Status of religious freedom in People's Republic of China

The communist government of the People's Republic of China tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian Churches (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party of China control. Churches which are not controlled by the government are shut down, and their members are imprisoned.^[60] Teaching in those Churches is importantly modified towards party's goals in its internal politics. By doing this they forced Christians to compromise their belief or the law to practice their beliefs (see article on Chinese House Churches) with all the subsequent consequences for them. 106 Orthodox churches were opened in China by 1949. In general the parishioners of these churches were Russian refugees, and the Chinese part was composed of about 10,000 people. The Cultural Revolution obliterated or nearly obliterated the Chinese Orthodox Church, such as St Nicholas' Orthodox church in Harbin province (see Chinese Orthodox Church).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Persecution of Christians in 19th Century Korea

Main article: Korean Martyrs

The Christian faith came to Korea at the beginning of the 17th century, primarily through the work of lay catechists, until the arrival of the first French missionaries in 1836. The Catholic community suffered major persecutions in the years 1839, 1846 and 1866, producing at least 8,000 known martyrs. Among them were the fervent Korean priest Andrew Kim Taegŏn and the Korean lay catechist Paul Chŏng Hasang. The vast majority of the martyrs were simple lay people, including men and women, married and single, old and young. The members of this group of martyrs have been canonized as saints, with feast day September 20. Currently, Korea has the 4th largest number of saints in the Catholic world.

The martyrs were canonized in 1984 by Pope John Paul II. In a break with tradition, the ceremony did not take place in Rome, but in Seoul.

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Japan

Main article: Persecution of Christians in Japan

In the early 1500s Christianity was brought to Japan by a Spanish Jesuit named Francis Xavier. Following its arrival, Christianity gained some ground. At the high water mark, as many as 10% of Japanese were Christian.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Edo Period

As the Sengoku period drew to a close in the late 1500s, the reigning kampaku Hideyoshi Toyotomi became concerned with the Christians on account of a number of perceived offenses. Hideyoshi was of the opinion that those Christian feudal warlords (daimyo) had more favorable trading conditions with Europeans and perceived this as a threat to his authority.^{[citation needed]} In the end, he decided to drive out the missionaries and killed 26 Christians as an example.^[61] Still, the trade continued. Japanese Christians were allowed to keep their faith but preaching and foreign missionaries were banned.^{[citation needed]} Later, the Tokugawa shogunate inherited the policy.^{[citation needed]} However, the Tokugawa Shogunate decided to close off Japan from foreign contact except for government sanctioned trade. As a part of this policy, in 1614 Shogun Ieyasu issued an edict of persecution and ensured its implementation: churches were destroyed, any foreign missionaries caught were expelled.^{[citation needed]} Also all Japanese were required to register with a Buddhist temple as Buddhists.^{[citation needed]} Christians were forced to step on fumie (religious icons) and if they refused, they were identified as Christians and tortured and killed. Japanese Christians modified statues and icons in Buddhist fashion to continue their faith. The defining moment was the Shimabara Rebellion (ja: 島原の乱, shimabara no ran), a massive uprising of Japanese peasants in Shimabara, many of them Christians, in 1637-1638. Tens of thousands of rebels were killed, many being burned alive or crucified. While the main cause of the uprising was protesting against a harsh taxing policy, the Shogunate suspected that Western Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion and Portuguese traders were driven out of the country. The Dutch were allowed to continue trading because they assured the Shogunate that they had no interest in spreading Christianity. An already existing ban on the Christian religion was then enforced strictly. The punishment of being a Christian was now execution. Many Christians were forced to convert to Buddhism. Christianity in Japan survived only by going underground, turning into something called kakure kirishitan. Shusaku Endo's novels Silence and The Samurai recount some of these events.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Meiji Revolution and WWII

During the Meiji era, Western governments continued to pressure the Japanese authorities to legalize Christianity. As a result, public notices proclaiming Christianity a forbidden sect were taken down in 1873. Ever since, Japanese authorities turned a blind eye to missionary preaching. In 1889, a new constitution was finally set in place that guaranteed religious freedom and equality under the law. As a result, Christians could worship and preach in security.^[62] During World War II Shinto became the official state religion of Japan and all others were banned, with varying degrees of punishment.^{[citation needed]} The persecution, specifically toward Christians (Especially Protestants, who were seen as sympathetic to the Allies), intensified until the end of the war, as non-Shinto were seen as traitors to Japan.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1945 onwards

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the government was forced to enact freedom of religion as part of the surrender. After Japan regained her sovereignty, freedom of religion remained as part of the new Constitution of Japan.

[edit] 19th and 20th Century Mexico

Main article: Persecution of Christians in Mexico

In the nineteenth century, Benito Juárez, confiscated a large amount of church land. The Mexican government's campaign against the Catholic Church after the Mexican Revolution culminated in the 1917 constitution which contained numerous articles which Catholics considered violative of their civil rights: outlawing monastic religious orders, forbidding public worship outside of church buildings, restricted religious organizations' rights to own property, and taking away basic civil rights of members of the clergy (priests and religious leaders were prevented from wearing their habits, were denied the right to vote, and were not permitted to comment on public affairs in the press and were denied the right to trial for violation of anticlerical laws). When the Church publicly condemned these measures which had not been strongly enforced, the atheist President Plutarco Calles sought to vigorously enforce the provisions and enacted additional anti-Catholic legislation known as the Calles Law. Weary of the persecution, in many parts of the country a popular rebellion called the Cristero War began (so named because the rebels felt they were fighting for Christ himself).

The effects of the persecution on the Church were profound. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed.^[63] Where there were 4,500 priests serving the people before the rebellion, in 1934 there were only 334 priests licensed by the government to serve fifteen million people, the rest having been eliminated by emigration, expulsion and assassination. ^{[64] [65]} It appears that ten states were left without even a single priest. ^[66]

[edit] During the Spanish Civil War

Main article: Red Terror (Spain)

During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, and especially in the early months of the conflict, the faithful, including individual clergymen and entire religious communities were executed with a death toll of the clergy alone, not including lay people, of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarists, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, for a total of 6,832 clerical victims ^[67]. No accurate assessment of the lay people who were killed for their faith has yet been done.

[edit] Persecution of Christians in India

[edit] By national and state governments

Many Christians in India regard anti-conversion laws passed by some states in India as specifically targeting their faith's evangelical activity, a view taken by the State Department of the United States.^[68]

Most of the Anti Conversion laws are brief and leave a lot of ambiguity, which can be mis-used for inflicting persecution. Legal experts believe that both conversion activities and willful trespass by missionaries upon the sacred spaces of other faiths can be prosecuted under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, and as such there is no need for anti-conversion laws by individual states and they should be repealed. A consolidation of various Anti-Conversion or "Freedom of Religion" Laws has been done by the All Indian Christian Council. ^[69]

In July, 2006, Madhya Pradesh government passed legislation requiring people who desire to convert to a different religion to provide the government with one-month's notice, or face fines and penalties. ^[70]

In August, 2006, the Chhattisgarh State Assembly passed similar legislation requiring anyone who desires to convert to another religion to give 30 days' notice to, and seek permission from, the district magistrate. ^[71]

In February, 2007, Himachal Pradesh became the first Congress Party ruled state to adopt legislation banning illegal religious conversions.^[72]

[edit] By Hindus

Hindu extremist attacks against Christians, especially in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa, have occurred in recent years in response to missionary activity by evangelical Christians^[73]. According to a report by the Center for Religious Freedom the attacks include the murder of missionaries and priests, the sexual assault of nuns, the ransacking of churches, convents and other Christian institutions.^[74]. Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, and his 2 children were burnt to death by a mob led by Dara Singh who had previously been involved in the cow protection movement and had earlier targeted Muslim cattle traders. He and his associates in the crime were "active sympathisers" of Hindu nationalist groups, but not members of any organisations ^[75]. The 2007 Orissa Violence again witnessed the persecution of Indian Christians by Hindu Extremists.

However it has been argued that local factional feuds, banditry and simple criminality are more important explanations for the murders and rapes than religious intolerance.^[76]

[edit] By Muslims

Muslims in India who convert to Christianity are often subjected to harassment, intimidation, and attacks by Muslims. In Kashmir, a region with many Islamic Fundamentalists, a Christian convert named Bashir Tantray was killed , allegedly by Militant Islamists in 2006^[77].

A Christian priest, K.K. Alavi, who is a convert from Islam, recently raised the ire of his former Muslim community and has received many death threats. An Islamic terrorist group named "The National Development Front" actively campaigned against him.^[78]

[edit] Persecution of Christians in Africa

• In the 11 Northern states of Nigeria that have introduced the Islamic system of law, the Sharia, sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians have resulted in many deaths, and some churches have been burned. More than 30,000 Christians were displaced from their homes Kano, the largest city in northern Nigeria.^[79]
• Copts in Egypt are often subject to attacks. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which 21 Copts and 1 Muslim were killed. A 2006 attack on three churches in Alexandria left one dead and 17 injured. Though they are accepted officially, Copts claim that discrimination against them continues.

[edit] Recent Christian persecution in other countries

A partial list of countries not already mentioned above where significant recent persecution of Christians exists includes North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka^[80], Bhutan, Maldives, Serbia (Kosovo), Afghanistan, Thailand, China, Lebanon, Syria, the Sudan (Darfur), Cambodia, Egypt, and Turkey^[81]. Persecuted Christians in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are supported by the Montagnard Foundation.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• W.H.C. Frend, 1965. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
• Let My People Go: The True Story of Present-Day Persecution and Slavery Cal. R. Bombay, Multnomah Publishers, 1998
• Their Blood Cries Out Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert, World Press, 1997.
• In the Lion's Den: Persecuted Christians and What the Western Church Can Do About It Nina Shea, Broadman & Holman, 1997.
• This Holy Seed: Faith, Hope and Love in the Early Churches of North Africa Robin Daniel, Tamarisk Publications, 1993. ISBN 0-9520435-0-5
• Let My People Go: The True Story of Present-Day Persecution and Slavery Cal. R. Bombay, Multnomah Publishers, 1998
• In the Shadow of the Cross: A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship Glenn M. Penner, Living Sacrifice Books, 2004
• Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History by Robert Royal, Crossroad/Herder & Herder; (April 2000). ISBN 0-8245-1846-2
• Islam's Dark Side - The Orwellian State of Sudan, The Economist, 24 June 1995.
• Sharia and the IMF: Three Years of Revolution, SUDANOW, September 1992.
• Final Document of the Synod of the Catholic Diocese of Khartoum, 1991. [noting "oppression and persecution of Christians"]
• Human Rights Voice, published by the Sudan Human Rights Organization, Volume I, Issue 3, July/August 1992 [detailing forcible closure of churches, expulsion of priests, forced displacement of populations, forced Islamisation and Arabisation, and other repressive measures of the Government].
• Khalidi, Walid. "All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948." 1992. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
• Sudan - A Cry for Peace, published by Pax Christi International, Brussels, Belgium, 1994
• Sudan - Refugees in their own country: The Forced Relocation of Squatters and Displaced People from Khartoum, in Volume 4, Issue 10, of News from Africa Watch, 10 July 1992.
• Human Rights Violations in Sudan, by the Sudan Human Rights Organization, February 1994. [accounts of widespread torture, ethnic cleansing and crucifixion of pastors].
• Pax Romana statement of Macram Max Gassis, Bishop of El Obeid], to the Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, February 1994 [accounts of widespread destruction of hundreds of churches, forced conversions of Christians to Islam, concentration camps, genocide of the Nuba people, systematic rape of women, enslavement of children, torture of priests and clerics, burning alive of pastors and catechists, crucifixion and mutilation of priests].

[edit] See also

• Christianophobia
• Barnabas Fund
• Christian pacifism
• Christian Solidarity Worldwide
• Anti-Protestantism
• Anti-Catholic
• Martyrs Mirror
• Forum 18
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs
• Voice of the Martyrs
• Persecution of Heathens
• Historical persecution by Christians
• Jizya
• Abdul Rahman (convert)
• Compass Direct
• Open Doors
• Persecution of Muslims
• Persecution of Jews
• Religious intolerance
• Religious persecution
• Religious pluralism
• Protestantism in China
• Category:Christian martyrs

[edit] External links

• The Voice of the Martyrs, VOM Australia and also VOM USA
• International Christian Concern
• Christian Monitor
• Coptic Christians persecuted in Egypt
• Montagnard Foundation supporting Christians persecuted in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
• Anti-Slavery organization
• "The Vengeance of the Jews Was Stronger Than Their Avarice: Modern Historians and the Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614" by Elliott Horowitz (Jewish Social Studies Volume 4, Number 2)
• About the Noahide Laws
• On the persecution of Catholics in Mexico
• The Catholic League Anti-Catholic Bigotry in the United States
• Graeme Clark, "Christians and the Roman State 193-324"
• Christian Persecution in Bhutan
• Catholic Answers
• Christian Persecution in Lebanon (On Rebuilding the 46 Catholic Churches destroyed in 1985 by extremist militias)
• Photojournalist's Account - Images of Sudan's persecution
• Christian Persecution Info by Worthy Ministries
• China Aid Association - Advocacy for the Persecuted Faithful in China
• Tietoa vainotuista suomeksi - Espoon helluntaikirkon sivut - Information about persecution in Finnish
• Daily updates about Christian persecution in Indiaar:اضطهاد المسيحيين

da:Kristenforfølgelse de:Christenverfolgung es:Persecución de los cristianos fr:Persécution des chrétiens it:Persecuzione dei cristiani nl:Christenvervolgingen pt:Perseguição aos cristãos fi:Kristittyjen vainot