"[I]t is absolutely the case that Christianity is the most widely
persecuted religion in the world today," observed the submission from
human rights advocate
cited
by Allen, for example, found for Christians in the years 2006-2010
"some form of harassment, either de jure or de facto, in 139 countries"
or two-thirds of all nations, "the largest total for any religious
group." Christians, meanwhile, were the only religious community at
risk in all 16 of the worst religious freedom countries identified by
the
(USCIRF). Terrorist attacks on Christians worldwide also jumped 139% in the years 2003-2011 according to the
While Middle Eastern persecution of Christians "is perhaps the most
acute," Rogers noted, Christians today are "facing threats from a wide
range of sources in almost every corner of the globe." As an
"alternative source of authority," USCIRF commissioner
analyzed,
Christianity presents a "direct threat both to tyrannical governments,"
whether "secular or religious," and "extremist private actors."
Russia, for example, "favors Russian Orthodox Christianity" over groups
like Pentecostals, thereby seeing "religion as ultimately a creature of
the state" as the Soviet Union previously.
Allen noted Iraq's Christian community, numbering 1.5 million in 1991
but down to 500,000 or even 150,000 today after fleeing a "campaign of
violence and intimidation" including attacks on 40 of 65 churches in
Baghdad since 2003. The Most Reverend
Francis A. Chullikatt,
Permanent Observer of the Vatican at the United Nations, referenced as
well the "tradition" in recent years confronting Arab Christians of
Christmas Eve church bombings. Yet "North Korea is widely considered
the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian," Allen wrote.
Perhaps a quarter of North Korea's 200,000-400,000 Christians endure
forced labor camps for refusing to venerate the national cult of North
Korea founder Kim Il Sung.
The "most violent anti-Christian pogrom of the early 21st century,"
though, occurred in the northeastern Indian state of Orissa in 2008.
Perhaps 500 Christians died in multiple riots, often hacked to death
with machetes by Hindu radicals who also destroyed 5,000 homes and 350
churches and schools. Yet authorities resisted effective judicial
action and even threatened false accusations against victims, lawyer
Tehmina Arora from the Indian branch of
Alliance Defending Freedom criticized.
From 827 filed complaints, only 512 charges resulted, leading to 75
cases with 477 convictions, primarily for petty property offenses; only
nine convictions involved killings.
Violence complemented legal repression in the form of "Freedom of
Religion Acts," commonly known as anti-conversion laws, justified in
several Indian states as preventing involuntary conversion. The acts
"give the district administration wide and sweeping powers to inquire
into religious conversions" and "cast an onerous burden" on converted
and proselytizers alike. Converts must give conversion details to
authorities and in Gujarat must even obtain conversion permission.
Arora also criticized the
1950 Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order.
This order excludes people "who professes a religion different from the
Hindu, the Sikh and the Buddhist religion" from classification as
members of disadvantaged castes such as the untouchables (Dalit).
Despite conversion, the 70% of Indian Christians from disadvantaged
castes continue to suffer social disabilities due to their untouchable
background, yet receive no government benefits.
CSW's sub-Saharan Africa expert
, Khataza Gondwe, surveyed that region, including its "militant Islamist insurgencies" such as Nigeria's
Boko Haram (BH).
"From its inception in 2002 when it was known locally as ‘the
Taliban'," Gondwe's submission stated, BH "made it clear that Christians
and symbols of the federal system were its primary targets." BH's
"campaign of religious cleansing," Gondwe warned, risked "being
obscured...by the oft repeated phrase that ‘more Muslims than
Christians' have died" from BH. This might be true given the "fact that
bombs do not discriminate" in religiously mixed areas, yet BH in 2013
destroyed 46 villages and expelled 14,000 Christians in the Gwoza area
of
Borno. A "former Maoist
liberation movement," meanwhile, ruled Eritrea as an "equal
opportunities oppressor" for all, including Christians.
"Latin America...often overlooked in discussions of international religious freedom," concerned
Jorge Lee Galindo,
director of the Mexican religious freedom initiative Impulso 18.
Mexican Protestants, for example, refuse financial contributions
demanded by traditional religious and political authorities for local
patron saint festivals. Attacks against the church and homes of one
Protestant community in 2009-2010 culminated in its expulsion with the
official approval of local authorities. National authorities have still
not returned this community to its homes, showing how religious freedom
"has never been a priority" for Mexico's government despite
constitutional and legal protections.
Like Mexico, Columbia has a parallel legal system for indigenous
communities. In contrast to Mexico, though, Columbia's Constitutional
Court ruled in 2007 that indigenous authorities may subordinate
individual religious freedom to community traditions. Regional
"anti-sect" laws in Argentina and Cuba's "onerous control over religious
groups" rounded out the Latin American state repression described by
Galindo.
Narco-trafficking networks in both Mexico and Columbia presented
private threats to Latin American religious liberty. In northern Mexico
targeting of churches for extortion and money laundering has become
"normal." Many of these "criminal groups have adopted a kind of
pseudo-religiosity" in, for example, the "cult of Santa Muerte or Saint
Death." Christian clergy who refuse to venerate such "saints" can
suffer "severe penalties" such as murder.
Even Indonesia's "tradition of pluralism" from the Pancasila state
ideology's recognition of six religions (Islam, Protestantism,
Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism) is "increasingly
under threat," Rogers noted in his Asian survey. The
Communion of Churches in Indonesia reports
at least 430 churches having been attacked, closed, or burned down
since 2004. According to the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum,
attacks against Christian churches have risen to 75 in 2012 from ten in
2009 and 47 in 2010.
Such repression refuted "two myths about Indonesia," namely that
"religious intolerance is confined to certain areas" and "occasional
incidents," and that the current administration of President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is
a "force of moderation." Yudhoyono has, for example, welcomed
intolerant fatwas from the National Congress of the Indonesian Ulama
Council (MUI). A 2006 governmental decree, moreover, requires for
church construction registration of 90 congregation members, approval
from 60 local residents, and recommendations from various government
bodies. Even after meeting these requirements, local resistance still
imperils some church building projects.
Western countries where Christianity "historically...has been an
integral part of society," were also the subject of Chullikatt's
remarks, as quoted from a
May 27, 2013, Vatican statement to the UN in Geneva.
Here a "trend emerges that tends to marginalize Christianity in public
life, to ignore historic and social contributions and even to restrict
the ability of faith communities to carry out social charitable
services." Chullikatt himself saw in this trend a "profound identity
crisis at the heart of these great democracies, which owe to their
encounter with Christianity both their origin and culture, including
their human rights culture."
Given the enormity of persecution, Allen wondered "why this global
war on Christians is often wrapped in a blanket of silence" even among
churches. Allen discerned a "problem of narrative" with Westerners
"conditioned to see Christianity as the agent of repression, not its
victim," given historic incidents such as the Inquisition. Yet "this
narrative is badly out of date." Of the estimated 2.3 billion
Christians globally, the world's largest religion encompassing a third
of humanity, two-thirds live outside the West. The "typical Christian
in today's world is not an affluent American male pulling up to church
in a Lincoln Continental" but rather more like a "poor black woman and
mother of four in Botswana."
Religious freedom has been an "orphan human right" in the American government, Abrams submission noted. Hence the 1998
International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)
founding USCIRF, yet IRFA's Ambassador-at-Large for International
Religious Freedom is currently vacant and "dramatically reduced" in rank
by the State Department. Presidents also exhibit bipartisan neglect in
designating the worst religious repressors as "
Countries of Particular Concern" (CPCs) such that the "CPC system is broken," Abrams said to Representative
Chris Smith.
Yet religious freedom "is not just a legal or moral duty, but a
practical necessity," Abrams submission argued, given various
correlations with peace and prosperity, all the more reason not to
ignore a "growing and searing affront to our consciences."
Andrew
E. Harrod is a freelance researcher and writer who holds a PhD from
the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from George Washington
University Law School. He is admitted to the Virginia State Bar. He
has published over 110 articles concerning various political and
religious topics at the American Thinker, Daily Caller, FrontPage
Magazine, Faith Freedom International, Gatestone Institute, Institute
on Religion and Democracy, Mercatornet, and World, among others. He
can be followed on twitter at @AEHarrod.
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