REPORT: 200 MILLION CHRISTIANS AT RISK OF SUFFERING PERSECUTION
[JOHN DAYAL’s NOTE: The problems of Christians in India suffering persecution at the hands of the Sangh Parivar, and often enough now at the hands of the State in some provinces, do seem to pale into insignificance compared to the plight of our brethren in faith in China, Africa, and nearer home, in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Each victim of persecution is as precious as the other, and deserving of our support, prayers and whenever possible, our intervention and advocacy. Even if there are no rivers of Christian blood flowing in India – rivulets of Muslim and Sikh blood have stained this great land in the past. What should worry Indians in general, the Church and the Government in particular, is that persecution takes place in India despite a written secular and democratic Constitution, with guarantees of freedom of faith, and a political culture that affirmed the polyglot, multicultural and multinational nature of Indian society, its people and its systems of governance. And yet it is possible for a small but powerful group such as the Sangh Parivar to force its writ and its will even on the state, to dictate to the media, to penetrate the police and the administration, to openly carry on hate campaigns, often using government-owned postal and telegraph systems. We are warned,]
[Source: Assist news Service and Catholic News Service]
A report in Sunday Express magazine quotes a British Secret Service, MI6, report that some 200 million Christians in 60 countries around the world are at risk of suffering persecution.
The report reveals that in Sudan, for example, "thousands of Christians have been massacred and the fundamentalist government has done little to protect them." In Iraq "Christians do not have their own militia to defend them, and Sunni and Shiite factions accuse them of collaborating with the American `crusaders.'"
The study also reveals that during the last year, at least 70 Christians were killed in Pakistan. In the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Islamic preachers "under the influence of al-Qaeda" present Christians as followers of a religion closely associated with Western colonialism, and they call for their expulsion.
The report also mentions North Korea, China, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda as other countries where Christians are persecuted. "North Korea has sent some 50,000 Christians to concentration camps while in China some 40,000 have suffered the same fate," the report stated
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