SANTA ANA, Calif. (WordNews.org) Jan. 13, 2021 — Worldwide persecution of Christians is at a record high, according to watchdog group Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List.
The number of Christian killed for their faith rose from 2,983 to 4,761 (WWL 2021), with 91 percent of the violent killings for religious reasons taking place in Africa. The report also revealed that 1-in-6 Christians in Africa endure faith-based discrimination and violence.
According to Open Doors, more than 340 million Christians, that’s 1-in-8 Christians worldwide, “no suffer high levels of persecution for their faith.”
For the first time in the 29-year history of the World Watch List, every country in the top 50 is ranked as experiencing very high or extreme levels of persecution.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has turned a bad situation into an unbearable one,” said David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA. “This public health crisis created an opportunity to expand faith-based discrimination and violence in regions where religious persecution had already reached alarming rates.”
China re-entered the top 20 for the first time in a decade because of its ongoing and increasing surveillance and censorship of religious minorities. Open Doors said new data show China’s surveillance state is used to persecute Christians and other religious minorities, such as Uighur Muslims. The Chinese Communist Party is not only normalizing these technologies within their borders, but exporting them to authoritarian regimes around the world.
“This goes beyond where you’re going to church or where you’re going to temple, to what it is you’re writing about on your phone,” said Dr. Chris Meserole, director of research and Policy of the Brookings Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative. “There’s no country that can match the sheer scale of surveillance technologies that China has developed and also deployed.”
Here’s the 2021 World Watch List Top 10:
- North Korea
- Afghanistan
- Somalia
- Libya
- Pakistan
- Eritrea
- Yemen
- Iran
- Nigeria
- India
Print
Email
