Global Persecution of Christians

[Mister D]

Perhaps the gravest under-publicized atrocity in the world is the persecution of Christians. A comprehensive Pew Forum study last year found that Christians are persecuted in 131 countries containing 70 percent of the world’s population, out of 197 countries in the world (if Palestine, Taiwan, South Sudan, and the Vatican are included). Best estimates are that about 200 million Christians are in communities where they are persecuted. There is not the slightest question of the scale and barbarity of this persecution, and a little of it is adequately publicized. But this highlights the second half of the atrocity: the passivity and blasé indifference of most of the West’s media and governments.

Continues
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/290498/global-persecution-christians-conrad-black?pg=1

[MMC]

130 some Countries.....there is no way the World of Media is not aware of this.

[Conley]

I'm not surprised by the numbers at all but it is a story worth publicizing. Globally Christians are probably the most persecuted of all simply because Christian nations are more likely to adopt religious freedoms whereas Muslim and Communist countries wouldn't think of it.

[Mister D]

I'm not surprised by the numbers at all but it is a story worth publicizing. Globally Christians are probably the most persecuted of all simply because Christian nations are more likely to adopt religious freedoms whereas Muslim and Communist countries wouldn't think of it.


Good point.

[Mister D]

I think the author does a good job describing the psychology of segments of the Western media.

[Conley]

I think the author does a good job describing the psychology of segments of the Western media.

Yes. Part of it also is that Western media by and large ignores Africa.

[Mister D]

That's true.

[Conley]

Well, I probably shouldn't limit it to Africa but include all of foreign coverage. American media at least is very much focused only on ourselves compared to media in European countries. There are practical reasons for that as well, of course.

[Mister D]

Well, I probably shouldn't limit it to Africa but include all of foreign coverage. American media at least is very much focused only on ourselves compared to media in European countries. There are practical reasons for that as well, of course.

We've been saturated with Mid East coverage for the last decade or so. This kind of thing gets a mentrion here and there but not often enough, IMO.

[Conley]

We've been saturated with Mid East coverage for the last decade or so. This kind of thing gets a mentrion here and there but not often enough, IMO.

Agreed. Off the top of my head, I can only remember two stories of Christians being persecuted over the past year, one in India and one in Egypt. I read a fair amount of world news and it just isn't covered.

[Mister D]

I guess it depends. The Economist would mention something like that at least from time to time and of course journals like National Review.

[Conley]

I think also when it happens all the time there is less coverage in the mainstream media.

[Mister D]

I think also when it happens all the time there is less coverage in the mainstream media.

yeah if it's common place (and it appears to be) it won't get as much play. Then again, I supose that's why Africa is sometimes ignored. I'm not excusing that, mind you. I'm just saying that people have come to expect Africa to be a fucked up place. :undecided:

[Conley]

yeah if it's common place (and it appears to be) it won't get as much play. Then again, I supose that's why Africa is sometimes ignored. I'm not excusing that, mind you. I'm just saying that people have come to expect Africa to be a fucked up place. :undecided:

Exactly. I was already thinking of instances like drought and famine there.

[MMC]

yeah if it's common place (and it appears to be) it won't get as much play. Then again, I supose that's why Africa is sometimes ignored. I'm not excusing that, mind you. I'm just saying that people have come to expect Africa to be a fucked up place. :undecided:

What about South Africa? :grin:

[Mister D]

What about South Africa? :grin:

The South African crime and AIDS rates do detract somewhat from South Africa's reputation.

[Conley]

I've read that the slums of Johannesburg are pretty darn bad.

[Mister D]

I've read that the slums of Johannesburg are pretty darn bad.

I've read some awful home invasion stories coming out of South Africa.

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - lookit - dem Mooslums is beatin' on dat poor man `cause he believes in Jesus!...
:shocked:
Pakistan acquits 112 in case of torching Christian homes over blasphemy rumour
January 29, 2017 - A Pakistani court acquitted 112 suspects in the 2013 torching of hundreds of Christian homes in the eastern city of Lahore over a rumour that one of the residents there had blasphemed, a lawyer said on Sunday.


In March 2013, more than 125 homes in Lahore's Josep Colony were burned by a mob of more than 3,000 Muslims responding to rumours that a local Christian man, Sawan Masih, had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad. No one was killed in the incident but there was widespread damage to the property of the mostly destitute Christians living in the neighbourhood. Two churches and dozens of Bibles were also desecrated in the attack.

Defence lawyer Ghulam Murtaza Chaudhry said an anti-terrorism court in Lahore had acquitted 112 people accused of torching and ransacking hundreds of houses. "They were acquitted by the court because of lack of evidences against them," Murtaza told Reuters. "The state witnesses could not identify the accused and their statements were also contradictory." All 112 suspects were already out on bail. A road sweeper in his late twenties, Sawan Masih told police after his arrest on blasphemy charges that the real reason for the blasphemy allegation was a property dispute between him and a friend who spread the rumour.


https://www.yahoo.com/sy/ny/api/res/1.2/lHiE1kX8o5gfqTJjSw6NZw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NDUwO2g9Mjg3O2lsPX BsYW5l/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2017-01-29T142526Z_1_LYNXMPED0S0ES_RTROPTP_2_PAKISTAN-BLASPHEMY.JPG.cf.jpg
Police beat and detain a Pakistani Christian protester during a demonstration against Saturday's burning of Christian houses and belongings in Badami Bagh, Lahore

In Pakistan, conviction under the blasphemy laws can carry a mandatory death sentence. Masih was sentenced to death in 2014, a decision he has appealed. Critics of Pakistan's blasphemy laws say they have long been used by individuals and religious groups to settle disputes. This month, the Pakistani Senate's human rights panel said it would debate how to prevent the country's blasphemy laws being applied unfairly, the first time in decades that any parliamentary body had considered a formal proposal to stop the abuse of the blasphemy laws.

Many conservatives in Pakistan consider even criticising the laws as blasphemy, and in 2011 a Pakistani governor, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his bodyguard after calling for reform of the laws. His killer Mumtaz Qadri was hailed as a hero by religious hard-liners. Tens of thousands of supporters attended his funeral after he was executed last year and a shrine was built over his grave soon after his burial. Hundreds of Pakistanis are on death row for blasphemy convictions.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pakistan-acquits-112-case-torching-christian-homes-over-142526945.html?ref=gs

[Peter1469]

And radical Sunnis are slaughtering Christians in Syria.

[ripmeister]

Well, I probably shouldn't limit it to Africa but include all of foreign coverage. American media at least is very much focused only on ourselves compared to media in European countries. There are practical reasons for that as well, of course.

One reason I make a point to listen to the BBC broadcasts on NPR. I think it's important we get out of our bubble.

[waltky]

Dat's why dey persecuted the Russians - `cause dey didn't have a 'Book'...
:shocked:
Report: Islamic States Lead in the Persecution of the Non-Religious
December 18, 2017 | A new report warns that secularism is under threat across the globe, with persecution of the non-religious on the increase – and Islamic countries dominate the list of the most egregious offenders.


The Freedom of Thought Report 2017, published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) this month, found that 85 countries severely violate the human rights of the non-religious in at least one area or worse. Breaches range from countries where laws against blasphemy persist to the 30 countries where the right not to believe is violated at the highest level, for example laws are largely or entirely derived from religion or from religious authorities. Of the 30 countries, 26 are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the bloc of 56 mostly Muslim-majority nations. The remaining four are China, North Korea, Eritrea and Ethiopia. In Pakistan, a humanist activist was murdered this year by his fellow college students, atheists were barred from taking public office, and there were continuing reports of forced religious conversions.

The report gave the United States a relatively good rating due to constitutional protections enjoyed by its citizens and well-established beliefs in personal freedom. The IHEU did warn, however, that secularist and humanist face ongoing battles with religious groups over issues of separation of church and state. Overall, the report said that the vast majority of the world’s countries fail to respect the rights of humanists, atheists, and the non-religious. The IHEU said the issue was significant, because the way a nation deals with freedom of thought almost always reflects the way it treats human rights overall. The report’s editor, Bob Churchill, said North Korea offered a good example of this. The regime clamps down on freedom of thought, but beyond that “the entire environment is dedicated to brainwashing,” he said.


https://cdn.cnsnews.com/styles/content_40p/s3/saudi-hrc2_0.jpg?itok=May7UTNq
Saudi Arabia is one of 30 countries identified in a new report as a major violator of the rights of the non-religious. Like other countries on the list, the kingdom is a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Here Saudi ambassador Abdulaziz Alwasil meets with U.N. Geneva director-general Michael Møller.

According to the IHEU, the impetus for an annual report began in 2012 when the State Department’s Office for Religious Freedom asked the American Humanist Association to write a report on global human rights violations against the non-religious. The IHEU then took the report written by the AHA and other American affiliates, and expanded it out into an international edition, which now examines the record of every country, Churchill agreed that humanist activists could be described as “a canary in the coalmine” when it comes to broader human rights violations. “But they’re also leading voices for reform and criticism of religious practices that are harmful to society,” he said. Ahead of the report’s launch, IHEU president Andrew Copson said humanists and atheists in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan are increasingly telling his group that they have been silenced, including online. ”They are afraid they’re going to be attacked for it, maybe even killed,” he said.

In recent years, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, like counterparts in other countries as well as international institutions, has publicly made ”freedom of religion or belief” a policy priority. In October, a report from a cross-party group of British lawmakers said that while this freedom was no longer a neglected one in policy discussions, it remained ”orphaned” when it comes to implementing policy. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a speech this month that international development aid programs were the key to expanding freedom of religion or belief in the Middle East. “If there is to be that third alternative, neither anti-democratic tyranny, nor Islamism, but pluralist and tolerant, then we need to intensify our current work,” he said.

Government ministers have pointed in the recent past to one program in the Middle East and northern Africa that helps secondary school teachers promote religious tolerance in their classes. The 30 countries found to have the worst records are: Afghanistan, China, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Comoros, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/kevin-mccandless/report-islamic-states-lead-persecution-non-religious

[Mister D]

What are human rights? What are they based on?

[Mister D]

One reason I make a point to listen to the BBC broadcasts on NPR. I think it's important we get out of our bubble.
Conley has been gone for years. :)

[waltky]

American pastor Andrew Brunson has been imprisoned in Turkey since October 2016...
:shocked:
Prosecutors Call For Lengthy Sentence For US Pastor in Turkish Prison
March 19, 2018 – American pastor Andrew Brunson faces up to 35 years in a Turkish prison after prosecutors presented a court with an indictment demanding a 20-year term for espionage and another 15 years for committing crimes on behalf of terror organizations.


The 50-year-old evangelical pastor from North Carolina, who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, has been incarcerated since late 2016, in a case that prompted personal appeals by President Trump and senior members of his administration to the Islamist leader of the NATO member-state. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the prosecutors’ prison sentence demand had been “accepted” by a court in the city of Izmir on Friday. However, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), which is advocating for his freedom, says that according to Brunson’s Turkish lawyer, the prosecutors are disputing that that step has yet been taken. “Since the case remains sealed, we will have to wait for the coming weeks to see how this situation plays out,” said the ACLJ. “In the meantime, Pastor Andrew remains behind bars, separated from his family, now for almost a year and a half.”

According to the Anadolu report, Brunson is accused of carrying out espionage activities “under the guise of missionary operations,” and of working on behalf of two entities viewed by the state as terror groups – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the so-called Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO). The PKK, which is also a U.S.-designed foreign terrorist organization, has been waging a separatist struggle with the Turkish state for three decades. With regard to FETO, Turkey accuses Gulen, a U.S.-based Turkish cleric and former close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of organizing a failed coup attempt in 2016 and is demanding that the U.S. extradite him. Gulen denies responsibility.


https://cdn.cnsnews.com/styles/front_page_secondary_featured/s3/brunson-aclj1_1.jpg?itok=g7xL8U9a

Erdogan last fall suggested Turkey could free Brunson in exchange for Gulen, a move that led critics in the U.S. to accuse him of effectively holding the pastor as a hostage. The indictment against Brunson, according to the Anadolu report, cites witnesses making various claims about a range of alleged activities, including:

--converting Kurds to Christianity and aiming to establish a Kurdish state for them (it noted that Brunson’s church held separate congregations for Kurds and used a Bible translated into Kurdish);

--trying to divide Turkey into pieces and giving “a small part to the administration” to FETO;

--helping formerly imprisoned PKK members to flee the country; and

--having prior knowledge of the coup attempt and expressing sadness at its failure.

Some pro-government media outlets have raised even more far-fetched scenarios, accusing Brunson of being a “high-level CIA agent” and even of masterminding the coup attempt – although it’s not clear whether those allegations are included in the indictment.

Sanction them (https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/prosecutors-call-lengthy-sentence-us-pastor-turkish-prison)