Why are Christians Persecuted Today?
Open Doors USA
This article expresses the four main reasons to why Christians are persecuted world wide.
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1. Christianity is viewed as a power threat to Authoritarian governments.
Authoritarian governments want control of all religious values and expressions. This is very common in North Korea or Eritrea, where Christians are heavily persecuted. They view Christians as enemies of the state and that they may try to use their religion as a way to be disloyal to rulers.
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2. Suspicion of anything outside the majority cultural faith.
In many places where Christians live, the majority religion is not Christianity. Nationalists of these countries believe that those who do not believe in the majority religion are deemed unfit to live there. This causes Christians to be a targeted for abuse and violence. This is very common in India and Muslim countries.
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3. Extremists who want to destroy all Christians.
There are many extremist groups in the world who want to persecute those who do not support their religious interpretations. Specifically in the Middle East and Nigeria, there are Islamic extremist groups that terrorize Christians because of their faith.
4. The want of cultural domination of a single religion.
In many countries around the world, there is only one dominant religion that is widely accepted there. They often times have official laws and policies that prevent Christians from openly practicing their faith. In places like Saudi Arabia, Islam is such a dominant religion that openly practicing Christianity is rarely heard of. This is do to restrictive laws placed there. In places like Pakistan, there are laws preventing Christians from practicing worship in any church that speaks the language of Iranians.
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-Analysis of Article-
This article did an awesome job addressing overarching reasons for Christian persecution world wide. These issues are not often talked about and the information found in this article shine light on major problems.
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The Guardian
This article identifies the three main drivers of persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
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1. Religious Extremism due to political failure
2. A turn to religious conservatism
3. Institutional weakness around justice, leaving the system open to exploitation by extremists
This article addresses the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and how it sometimes amounts to genocide. It has prompted exodus and has been ongoing for the past two decades. Christians are continuing to be pulled from their homes and killed or abused.
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The report reveals that the population of Christians in the Middle East used to be about 20% and now it’s 5%, roughly 15 million people.
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In the Middle East forms of persecution range from discrimination in education, social life, and employment.
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-Analysis of Article-
This article did a great job highlighting why Christians are persecuted in the Middle East today, specifically political failure.
The article focuses on how political failure has influenced religious conservatism, leading to a weak political system. Extremists have now taken advantage of this failing political system and targeted Christians.
Some may have a negative view on this article as they may believe in Religion and State in the Middle East, and support the extremist groups that persecute Christians.
However, this article does a great job explaining the political reasoning for persecution of Christians.
Open Door USA's released 2019 watch list of Christian Persecutors
