More Christians have been killed for their faith in the past 100 years than in any century before, according to International Christian Concern. This is why the organization exists, to “bandage the wounds of the persecuted Christians and build the church in the toughest part of the world.”
Each year, ICC compiles a report tracking worldwide trends in persecution. This year’s “Persecutor of the Year Awards,” released during the second annual International Religious Freedom summit, catalogs the 16 top persecutors in the categories of country, entity, and individual. One from each category was chosen as Persecutor of the Year: Afghanistan, the Fulani militants in Nigeria, and Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, respectively, took the top spots. Jeff King, president of ICC, called the report “a major wakeup call to churches in the West.”
“This report isn’t a list of sad, small statistics happening somewhere in the world, far removed from us,” King said. “Many of these are mass human rights violations, with some approaching genocide. Religious freedom is an issue that affects people of all faiths and is a key driver in political freedom. Our report documents actual ongoing religious persecution that is consistently ignored by the major media and barely touched by our comfortable churches in the United States.”
Since the Taliban took control following the U.S. military withdrawal in 2021, Christian persecution has risen to its highest in Afghanistan since 1996, when the Taliban was first in power. Soon after Kabul fell to the Taliban, the Bible app was outlawed, and it was announced that anyone found with it on their phone would be arrested. Converts to Christianity are considered apostates deserving of death under the Taliban’s Islamic law, subjecting them to intense harassment, intimidation, and discrimination; detainment for torture or execution; and restriction of movement. The Taliban have access to documents identifying Christians and go door to door searching for “apostates.”
Akram, a Muslim-background Christian who assists ICC in rescuing Christians in Afghanistan, shared a few stories from contacts in the region. One man she spoke with was tortured in prison for three months with electric shocks and cold water in the winter.
“With all the pain and suffering that they are going through, their faith is unbelievable,” Akram said.
In Nigeria, violent extremist groups like the Fulani militants make the region one of the most dangerous for Christians. Over the past 20 years, the group, which is made of Fulani members radicalized by Islam, has killed between 50,000 and 100,000 Christians and displaced over 3 million.
While many in the Nigerian government and the international community call it a land conflict, Christians in the region note that Fulani are motivated by jihad, as they often target Christian leaders and communities. In the first 100 days of 2022 alone, Fulani militants perpetrated 31 documented village attacks, killed 205 Christians, and kidnapped 60.
Iran’s Khamenei, also called “supreme leader,” uses his immense power over every facet of Iranian life to bolster the state’s Islamic theocracy and target Christians. With control over the courts and the security forces, Khamenei persecutes Christians with imprisonment, torture, horrific living conditions, and death sentences.
House churches are considered a threat to national security, meaning Christians who do not speak the same languages as the permitted Assyrian and Armenian churches have no place to worship and face arrest for gathering.
During the ICC event unveiling the report, Dr. Daniel Shayesta, a former radical Muslim leader who was sentenced to death after opposing the ayatollah as a candidate for the Islamic parliament, spoke via video.
“It is because of the ayatollah’s viciousness that now many Iranians hate Islam,” Shayesta said. “Christ is the only solution to the cruelty of the ayatollahs.”
Shayesta escaped to Turkey, became a Christian, and now runs the evangelistic apologetics ministry Exodus From Darkness.
Additional persecutors documented in the ICC report include the countries of Algeria, China, Egypt, and Pakistan; the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India; and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others.
North Korea, under the control of Kim Jong Un, also remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for Christians. King told the Washington Examiner that North Korea has been at the top of the list for a long time. Yet in the 20 years he has been working in this area, the biggest change has been the rise of Islam.
“You’re seeing the fruit of that all over the world,” King said.
But he says there is hope, as Iranians are beginning to say radical Islam is the problem, not just their leaders. A February survey of Iranians by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based research organization, found only one-third of participants identified as Shia Muslims.
“They’re leaving Islam in droves,” King said. “The ayatollahs hold on only through force.”
“The insatiable desire for freedom in the heart over time wins out, but there is a lot of fight to do in the meantime and to support the oppressed and those who are in prison.”
For those in the West, particularly Christians, these stories should make us remember and support believers suffering for the name of Christ — and put things here in perspective.
Katelynn Richardson is a Summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
