One-hundred percent of Christians in 21 countries around the world experience persecution for their faith in Christ as over 215 million Christians faced “high levels” of persecution in the last year, a leading human rights watchdog group reports.
Open Doors USA released on Wednesday morning its 2017 World Watch List, which is the 25th annual ranking of the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution.
“2016 was the worst year of persecution on record with a shocking 215 million Christians experiencing high levels of persecution for their faith,” Open Doors USA CEO David Curry asserted during a press conference at the National Press Club.
“It is worth repeating that nearly one in every 12 Christians today lives in an area or culture in which Christianity is illegal, forbidden or punished. Yet, today the world is largely silent on the shocking wave of religious intolerance,” he continued…
“In the top 21 countries on the Open Doors World Watch List, 100 percent of Christians experience persecution,” the fact sheet states. “Christians are a minority in all countries on the list, accounting for only 13 percent of the total population.”
The top 21 countries on the list include in this order: North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, India, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Kenya, Turkmenistan, Qatar and Egypt.
In North Korea, Christians are prohibited from practicing their faith and can be killed or jailed for simply owning a Bible. As the Communist Kim regime forces citizens to accept the cultic belief that the Kim family is divine, thousands of Christians have been killed and entire families have been thrown into torturous labor “reeducation” camps for practicing their faith or trying to defect.
