Christians targeted by Islamic terror groups across the globe

THE MIDDLE East’s population of 12 million Christians will be halved by 2020, if current demographic trends continue, writs World Review expert, Lord Alton. Christians made up a quarter of the Middle East’s population 100 years ago, now they are less than five per cent. Christians are being persecuted today from North Korea to Pakistan, from China to Sudan. Approximately 10 per cent of the two billion Christians in the world suffer persecution, according to the Catholic relief agency, Aid to the Church In Need. Aleppo’s Melkite Greek Catholic archbishopric in Aleppo has been hit more than 20 times by mortar shells and was under fire again in June 2015. Christians have been killed, lost homes and livelihoods and are being traumatised by Syria’s civil war. There are fewer than 100,000 of the 250,000 Christians left in Aleppo. Thousands have been killed, churches and ancient monasteries blown up, whole communities forced to flee, bishops and priests abducted, some executed. Torture, beheadings and even ‘crucifixion’ - by hanging corpses of the executed on crosses - has become commonplace. Syrian Christians living in areas controlled by the Islamic State (IS) are forced to convert to Islam or pay a punitive jizya tax equivalent of US$650 in Syrian pounds. Failure to pay left two options - convert or be killed. Vast tracts of Syria and Iraq have become lawless and ungovernable with faultlines opening between Islamic extremists and moderates, between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and between Sunnis and Shias - with funds and arms flowing in from the Gulf and Tehran. The brutality of IS manifests itself in beheadings accompanied by a blitzkrieg on antiquities and ancient artefacts, destroying Christian churches and defiling Shia mosques. This hatred of Christians has been nurtured by other radical groups from the Taliban to al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. Jihadist ideology by al-Shabaab-affiliated Islamist militants saw Christian students singled out in an attack where 147 students died at Kenya’s Garissa University College. A Christian couple was burned alive in a kiln earlier in 2015 by a mob of 1,300 people in Pakistan. A 15 year-old Christian boy was beaten, tortured and burnt alive in April, 2015, in Lahore, after he was identified as a Christian. Boko Haram is creating havoc and fear in Nigeria, graphically illustrated by the February 2014 abduction of young girls and the murder of 59 students from the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State, while they slept. Churches have been bombed, pastors executed, and Christians targeted despite the government’s insistence it is tackling Boko Haram, which killed more than 80 people in June 2015. Egypt was horrified in February 2015 by the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts who were working in Libya. It against this background - from Syria and Iraq, to Sudan, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, and many other countries in which Christians and others are persecuted for their beliefs - that June 2015 witnessed a human rights conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on combatting intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief. Saudi Arabia is one of the worst violators of religious freedom, and Saudi Wahhabism has fuelled many of these conflicts. Saudi Arabia ranks sixth on the 2014 World Watch List of most repressive countries for Christians, a list compiled by the charity, Open Doors. The Jeddah Conference aimed to discuss how to effectively implement UN Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 on combating religious intolerance, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against people due to their religion or beliefs. World leaders face the challenge of championing and upholding the rule of law and the protection of minorities - beyond conferences and speeches. That is the antidote to Jihadist ideology, not assassination squads or endless aerial bombardment. The war lords and regime leaders responsible for persecution and atrocities should face justice. The challenge is to increase the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court. The central question of how nations learn to live together, tolerantly respecting and rejoicing in the dignity of difference is at the heart of all these challenges. It means emphasising a common humanity; promoting the ability of members of all religious faiths to manifest their religion; and allow all people to contribute openly and on an equal footing to society. Aid programmes and humanitarian interventions have to reflect values and be used to protect minorities, provide security, and to open the possibility of decent lives for those currently trying to flee their native homelands. The immediate and over-arching concern remains the plight of Middle Eastern Christians. The international community has to be more consistent in its moral outrage rather than denouncing some countries for their suppression of minorities while appeasing others who directly enable jihad through financial support. The dramatic rise in the persecution of Christians has been accompanied by a vilification of Islam and, in Europe especially, the reawakening of anti-Semitism. For a more in-depth look at this subject with scenarios looking to future outcomes, go to our sister site: Geopolitical Information Service. Sign in for 3 Free Reports or Subscribe.

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