More than 360 million Christians were “heavily persecuted and discriminated against” because of their faith in the world in 2021, and Afghanistan is the worst country for Christians, according to a report by the NGO Open Doors published on Wednesday.
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“The persecution has reached a record level,” said Patrick Victor, director of Portes Ouvertes France and Belgium, during a press briefing on Wednesday.
This Protestant NGO publishes an annual “global index” of the persecution of Christians, listing all attacks, ranging from “discreet daily oppression” to “the most extreme violence”.
Between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, “more than 360 million Christians” — Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Baptists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, etc., from 76 countries — were “heavily persecuted and discriminated against” , compared to 340 million in 2020, she notes.
In 2021, 5,898 Christians were killed, an increase of 24% compared to the previous year when 4,761 cases were recorded. “Eight out of ten Christians killed were in Nigeria.”
In addition, the total number of churches closed, attacked, destroyed rose to 5,110 last year from 4,488 in 2020.
Open Doors also notes “a 44% increase in the number of Christians detained because of their faith” (4,277 cases recorded in 2020, 6,175 cases in 2021).
All forms of persecution combined, Afghanistan topped this annual ranking. North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Eritrea and Nigeria follow.
In Afghanistan, the persecution took “a new dimension with the takeover of the Taliban”, says the NGO.
“The Taliban have obtained documents allowing the identification of certain converts to Christianity. They actively sought them out. Converted men are killed on the spot, women or girls raped, or forcibly married off to young Taliban,” said Guillaume Guennec, another Portes Ouvertes official.
According to him, difficult to know “how many were killed, but it is disproportionate to previous years”.