AP

Why is the persecution of Christians often met with indifference?

It has never been more dangerous to be a Christian than today. According to the newly released 2024 World Watch List, an authoritative survey by persecuted church agency Open Doors, 365 million Christians, or one in seven, are at high or extreme risk of persecution every day because of their faith.

In 2007 the British Secret Service reported that 200 million Christians were in daily danger. The number has almost doubled.

Communist North Korea tops the World Watch list, as it has every year but one since 2002, and Hindu India – which has accelerated up the list in recent years – comes in 11th. Buddhist Myanmar is 17th, communist China is 19th, and the rest of the top 20 are all Muslim nations. In fact, Christians can be at risk in any of the more than 50 Muslim-majority countries.

Here are the 20 most dangerous nations to be a Christian, in order: North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Mali, Algeria, Iraq, Myanmar, Maldives, China and Burkina Faso.

Open Doors defines persecution not just as violence or imprisonment but any hostility experienced because of one’s identification. It can look different in every country, from rejection and isolation, to being denied access to basic needs like water, food, and health care. The danger may come from governments, or from extremists who act with impunity.

The charity reports a seven-fold increase in attacks on Christian churches, schools, and hospitals in the past year, while physical attacks on Christians rose almost 370 per cent.

It irks me when some Western Christians claim they are persecuted – and religious freedom will be a big domestic issue this year – because it trivialises serious persecution. Christians in Western democracies do face increased opposition, but they do not risk being tortured, murdered, or being dragged into the street and beaten while their houses are burnt to the ground. Nor is Islamophobia in the West, though certainly real, in any way comparable.

It is not only Christians who suffer. India’s 200 million Muslims face intense pressure, as Muslims also do in Myanmar, or Baha’is (and any other religious minority) in Iran, while Buddhists, Hindus, tribal religions, and atheists are at risk in many countries. But Christians are by far the biggest group.

These Christians generally endure silently in the face of a global indifference that I find mysterious. They are mostly Asian and African, the latter suffering a steady slow genocide by Muslim extremists. This attracted attention, but only briefly, in 2014 when Michelle Obama reacted strongly to the abduction of 276 Nigerian Christian schoolgirls by Boko Haram and celebrities piled on board.

I don’t know why some suffering captures public attention when so much slips under the radar. But it is not to our credit.

– Barney Zwartz (reprinted from the Sunday Age, 4 February 2024)