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Persecution of Christians worse in Asia; Christian presence in Mideast might not recover

October 31, 2019

The crisis is real, but the international community remains largely indifferent. U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged aid to Christians in Syria, but there are no significant efforts to aid persecuted Christians in Pakistan, India, or China. Meanwhile, ancient Christian communities in the Middle East have been decimated, and a significant Christian presence may never return there.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Pakistan, see here; for India, see here; and for China, see here. For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the imminent disappearance of Christianity from some of its ancient strongholds, see here.

“Persecution of Christians worse in Asia; Mideast might not recover,” Catholic News Service, November 1, 2019:

Christianity is disappearing from towns and cities in parts of the Middle East, warns a new report from the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

It also said that persecution of Christians “has worsened the most” in South and East Asia….

While noting that the international community has shown unprecedented concern about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, the organization said “governments in the West and the U.N. failed to offer Christians in countries such as Iraq and Syria the emergency help they needed as genocide got underway.”…

“Around the world, Christians are a favored target for violent militant extremists who operate without boundaries and who attack local Christians as a legitimate alternative to a direct strike on the West,” the organization said.

In India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and other countries in South and East Asia, it said, “An increasing unity of purpose between religio-nationalist groups and governments represents a growing – and largely unrecognized – threat to Christians and other minorities.” In Asia, “Christianity is seen as not only alien but as an agent of unwanted Western influence.”

North Korea, where Christians face torture for professing their faith, “is widely considered the most dangerous place to be a Christian,” the report said.