Christians are the Largest Single Group Persecuted in the World
Virtually every human rights group and Western government agency that monitors the plight of Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of them face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000.
Christians are “the largest single group in the world which is being denied human rights on the basis of their faith,” the World Evangelical Alliance has noted.In a report to a conference on Christian persecution hosted by the European Parliament, the U.S. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put it this way: while Muslims and Jews worldwide and Baha’is in Iran certainly suffer too, Christians were “harassed” by government factors in 102 countries and by social factors, such as mob rule, in 101 countries.
“Altogether, Christians faced some form of harassment in two-thirds of all countries,” or 133 nations, the report said. Muslims also face “substantial” harassment, the Pew report found, but in fewer countries.
Christians face harassment in more countries “than any other religious group,” a Pew Forum spokesperson told the Star.
Put in sharper focus, “at least” 75 per cent of all religious persecution in the world is directed against Christians, the conference was told.
We thank for reporting: http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/must-read-why-christianity-is-the-most-persecuted-religion-in-the-world/ Detailed Story in the Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/901492--christianity-arguably-the-most-persecuted-religion-in-the-world