{"id":7065,"date":"2014-02-28T10:21:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T18:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7065"},"modified":"2014-02-28T10:21:55","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T18:21:55","slug":"why-are-christians-the-worlds-most-persecuted-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-are-christians-the-worlds-most-persecuted-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Christians the World’s Most Persecuted Group?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the\u00a0most persecuted religious group in the world<\/a>?\u00a0 And why is their persecution\u00a0occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world?<\/a>\u00a0 (In the category on \u201cCountries with Very High Government Restrictions on<\/p>\n

\"J\u00f3zef<\/a>
J\u00f3zef Kazimierz “Meaglin” Soko\u0142owski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Religion,\u201d Pew lists 24 countries\u201420 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming majority of \u201cthe world\u2019s\u201d Christians are actually being persecuted.)<\/p>\n

The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of\u00a0 Christians is threefold:<\/p>\n

Christianity is the largest religion in the world<\/em>.\u00a0 There are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of the Muslim world.\u00a0 Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized was originally Christian\u2014including the Middle East and North Africa, the region that is today known as the \u201cArab world\u201d\u2014Muslims everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported \u201cfreedom fighters.\u201d\u00a0 Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th\u00a0century Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic Christians (though some put the number\u00a0at much higher<\/a>). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other religious groups throughout the Arab world. \u00a0\u00a0Yet as CNS News\u00a0puts it<\/a>, \u201cPresident Obama expressed hope that the \u2018Arab Spring\u2019 would give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle East, which has had the world\u2019s highest level of hostility towards religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it. However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christianity is a proselytizing faith that seeks to win over converts<\/em>.\u00a0 No other major religion\u2014including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism\u2014except Islam itself has this missionary aspect (these faiths tend to be coterminous with their respective ethnicities: Buddhists, Asians; Judaism, Jews; Hinduism, Hindus).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thus because Christianity is the only religion that is actively confronting Muslims with the truths of its own message, not only is it the primary religion to be accused of proselytizing but, by publicly uttering teachings that contradict Muhammad\u2019s, Christians are accused of blaspheming as well.\u00a0 Similarly, this proselytizing element is behind the fact that most Muslims who apostatize to other religions overwhelmingly convert to Christianity.\u00a0 Finally, if indigenous Christians are many in the Middle East, because that is the cradle of Christianity, in other regions with large Muslim populations, such as sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, Christian missionaries have won over millions of converts to the faith\u2014many of whom are now targeted and persecuted according to Islam\u2019s anti-apostasy law, which often calls for the death penalty.<\/p>\n

Christianity is the quintessential religion of martyrdom<\/em>.\u00a0 From its inception\u2014beginning with Jesus followed by his disciples and the early Church\u2014many Christians have accepted martyrdom rather than recant their faith, in ancient times\u00a0at the hands of Romans, in Medieval and modern times at the hands of pious Muslims<\/a>\u00a0and others.\u00a0 Few other religions encourage their adherents to embrace death rather than recant, as captured by Christ\u2019s own words: \u201cBut whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my Father in heaven\u201d (Matt 10:33; see also Luke 14:33).\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Conversely,\u00a0Islam teaches Muslims to openly renounce their faith (taqiyya<\/em>)<\/a>\u2014not just when their lives are threatened, but even as a stratagem of war\u2014as long as they remain Muslim in their hearts.\u00a0 Other religions and sects also approve of dissimulation to preserve their adherents\u2019 lives.\u00a0 Back in the 1800s, for instance, Samuel M. Zwemer, a Christian missionary, observed that in Iran \u201cBahaism enjoys taqiyya (concealment of faith)\u00a0as a duty, but Christianity demands public profession<\/em>; and hence in Persia it is far easier to become a Bahai than to become a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

To summarize, because of their sheer numbers around the globe, including the Muslim world, Christians are the most likely targets of Islamic intolerance; because sharing the Gospel, or \u201cwitnessing,\u201d is a dominant element of Christianity, Christians are most likely to fall afoul of Islam\u2019s blasphemy and proselytism laws, as even the barest pro-Christian talk is by necessity a challenge to the legitimacy of Islam; because most Muslims who apostatize to other religions convert to Christianity, it is as Christians that they suffer persecution; and because boldness in face of certain death\u2014martyrdom, dying for the faith\u2014is as old as Christianity itself, Christians are especially prone to defy Islam\u2019s anti-freedom laws, whether by openly proclaiming Christianity or by refusing to recant it, and so they die for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the\u00a0most persecuted religious group in the world?\u00a0 And why is their persecution\u00a0occurring primarily throughout the Islamic world?\u00a0 (In the category on \u201cCountries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,\u201d Pew lists 24 countries\u201420 of which are Islamic and precisely where the overwhelming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,225,227],"tags":[366,192,1017,1060,478],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1PX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6219,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/crucified-again-venn-institute-interviews-raymond-ibrahim\/","url_meta":{"origin":7065,"position":0},"title":"Crucified Again — Venn Institute Interviews Raymond Ibrahim","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Raymond Ibrahim [Note: The following interview was conducted by the\u00a0Venn Institute\u00a0with Raymond Ibrahim] Raymond Ibrahim is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam expert, and author most recently of\u00a0Crucified Again: Exposing Islam\u2019s New War on Christians. 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