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Religious persecution is on the rise in Africa and the Middle East, forcing millions of Christians to flee their homes for overcrowded refugee camps and the risks of smuggling routes to Europe, according to a report.
The targeting of Christians has worsened over the past year, says Open Doors, a charity that monitors religiously motivated violence and discrimination, and produces an annual league table of the worst countries in which to be a Christian.
North Korea continued to top the list for overall persecution in 2015, but Nigeria came first for the number of Christians killed for their faith, recording more than half of the 7,000-plus killings across the globe.
The headlines focus on the Middle East, but there were more recorded killings of Christians due to their faith in northern Nigeria in 2015 than in the rest of the world put together; 4,028 out of a worldwide total of 7,100 reported deaths, the report said.
Out
of 50 countries listed by Open Doors, the six where most Christians
were killed for directly faith-related reasons were in sub-Saharan
Africa: Nigeria, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Kenya and Cameroon.
In numerical terms at least, though not in degree, the persecution
of Christians in this region dwarfs what is happening in the Middle
East, the report said.
More than 2 million people, many of them Christians, have been
forced to leave their homes in northern Nigeria, where the Islamist
terror group Boko Haram is waging a campaign. Open Doors also
reported violence against Christian farmers by Hausa-Fulani tribesmen,
conservatively estimating more than 1,500 religiously motivated
killings. Both Boko Haram and Hausa-Fulani are carrying
out religious cleansing, aiming to eradicate Christianity,
the charity said.
Eritrea, at number three on the list, is dubbed the North
Korea of Africa. President Isaias Afewerkis totalitarian
paranoia is driving hundreds of thousands of its citizens
into the hands of people smugglers. Eritrean Christians,
even though they know there is a very high probability of falling
into the hands of traffickers and ruthless radical groups like
Daesh [Islamic State], are still desperate to escape from Eritrea,
the report quotes one of its researchers as saying.
Women and girls are on the frontline of religious persecution,
it says. In many places in the world [they] face a double
vulnerability: the disadvantage and repression prompted by their
gender is overlaid by the hostility and persecution that comes
from their minority Christian faith.
Among the abuses faced by women and girls are kidnapping and forced marriage , honour killings, rape, beatings, having acid thrown in their faces, and domestic violence.
The Middle East continued to be a major hub of anti-Christian persecution. David Alton, the crossbench peer and campaigner on the issue, described events in Syria and Iraq as a genocide that dares not speak its name.
Many
Christian families are living in disused steel containers, churches
or in overcrowded apartments with relatives.
One Open Doors worker in northern Iraq who was unwilling to disclose
his name told the Guardian that most Christian refugees refused
to enter UN-run camps. Many feel they were betrayed by their
Muslim neighbours, and families are very concerned about the safety
of their women and girls. They prefer smaller, church-run camps,
but these are less well-resourced. Christian refugees are being
bypassed by the big UN organisations.
India
is also highlighted in the Open Doors report for the rise in persecution
against Muslims, Christians and other minority faiths since the
election of Narendra Modi as prime minister at the head of a government
dominated by the nationalist Hindu BJP party. It is now at number
17 on the list, up from 31 two years ago.
Pastors have been beaten and killed, and members of their
congregations forced to convert to Hinduism in an increasing number
of attacks across the country. On average a church is burned down
or a pastor beaten three times a week, said Open Doors.
He added: Deep-rooted religious hatred, a hatred of difference,
is driving on a systematic campaign of deportation and exodus,
degrading treatment, including sexual violence, enslavement, barbaric
executions, and attempts to systematically destroy all history
and culture that is not their own.
An international delegation of 15 Catholic bishops visiting Christian
refugees from Iraq in Jordan this week and raised concerns about
their harsh conditions. Very few are living in two big camps run
by the UN and international aid agencies, partly because they
fear intimidation and violence from a minority of hardline Muslim
refugees.