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 | Perhaps the most vicious conflict in recent years was in Rwanda, where two ethnic groups (Hutus and Tutsis) clashed, even though they follow the same religion. |
| A serious ethnic conflict continues with the Kurds because they have no country of their own, but are occupying portions of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq Syria, and Turkey. |
But, much conflict can also be attributed to multiple religious groups within a country, as in
| Bosnia (Roman Catholics, Serbian Orthodox, Muslims) |
| China (Communists (interpreted as a religion), Christians) |
| India (Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Aboriginals, etc.) |
| Indonesia (Christians, Muslims) |
| Middle East (Christians (to a small degree), Jews and Muslims) |
| Northern Ireland (Protestants and Roman Catholics) |
| Sri Lanka (Hindus, Buddhists) |
| Sudan (Christians, Muslims) |
| Philippines (Christians, Muslims) |
| Tibet (Communists, Buddhists) |
In many cases, conflicts have many root causes: racial, ethnic, religious, economic, etc. This makes it difficult to determine the main cause of the strife.
When one faith group attains political power in a religiously divided country, then the potential for persecution based on religion is high. Countries with a policy of separation of church and state appear to have less religious discrimination.
North American Religious Persecution:
In the U.S. and Canada, most religious oppression and persecution is in the form of:
| Government action in which there is a conflict between religious freedom and
other government interests. Some recent examples have been:
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| Religiously motivated attacks by individuals and small groups:
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Religious Persecution Outside North America:
According to David B. Barrett, about 165,000 Christians will by martyred during the year 2000, largely by communist régimes, Fundamentalist Hindus, and Fundamentalist Muslims. 9 Meanwhile, during the year 2000, relatively few Christians are actively involved in the religiously-motivated killing of individuals of other faith groups; the only such hot spots are Northern Ireland and the Philippines.
Oppression of persons for their faith is far more widespread - both by religious groups and governments. The latter tends to take two forms:
| Attacks on all religions by Communist governments. Some of the more serious
examples are:
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| Attacks on religious minorities by (or with the assistance of) governments which are allied with religious groups
within their own countries: This type of oppression seems to appear to some degree in
almost all of those countries which lack a wall of separation
between church and state; i.e. governments that are partial or full theocracies. Some
examples are:
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Trends are difficult to quantify, because reliable data are not generally available. Other trends:
| The level of antisemitism appears to be growing worldwide. |
| Attacks on Neopagans in North America by individuals, politicians and Christian religious leaders are expected to grow in the new millennium for a variety of reasons. |
| In Europe, there appears to be a serious increase in Government oppression of small religious groups - notably against: |
| The Church of Scientology in Germany |
| The Jehovah's Witnesses in France. |
| Small religious groups in Russia |
| Minority Protestant groups in Greece. |
The situation in France and Germany appears to be fueled mainly by counter-cult hysteria. That panic has been discredited in North America and is largely inactive here. But the movement has been exported to Europe where it appears to be growing in influence. Oppression of small groups in Russia and Greece appears to be driven by a desire of the Christian Orthodox Churches to attain a religious monopoly.
International Day of Prayer
The Prayer for the Persecuted Church sponsors an in mid-November each year. They appear to be focusing totally on Christian victims of religious persecution. They state that:
| There have been more Christians killed in the 20th century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. |
| Over 200 million Christians in more than 40 countries worldwide "face the prospect of persecution" because of their religion. |
| More than 150,000 Christians were expected to be killed for their faith in 1997. |
US State Department Responses
John Shattuck recently spoke on behalf of the US State Department. He is the assistant secretary of their Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He indicated that the issue of religious persecution has "skyrocketed" to a much higher place on the Department's agenda in recent years. He said that the fall of Communism unleashed a "global instability" that in turn unleashed religious hatreds. In some cases, as in Bosnia, political leaders stimulate religious conflict to further political objectives. The State Department has responded by:
| Establishing in 1996-NOV, a 20-member advisory committee on religious liberty overseas. |
| Issuing in 1997-JUL, a blistering 56-page report on religious freedom in other countries. 4 |
| Instructing its ambassadors to closely monitor religious persecution in their countries. |
| Counseling U.S. companies doing business overseas to employ business practices that promote religious freedom. |
| Giving greater coverage to religious persecution problems via Radio Free Europe and other outlets. |
Related essay on this web site:
| Review of report by the Center for Religious Freedom |
References:
- The 1997 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church has a home page at: http://www.persecutedchurch.org/home.htm
- International Teams has a series of essays on persecution of Christians at: http://www.iteams.org/ITeams/resource/crdb/
- Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, "Their Blood Cries Out: The Untold Story of Persecution Against Christians in the Modern World", Word Books, (1997). You can Review and perhaps buy this book from amazon.com online bookstore A brief extract is at: http://www.erlc.com/SaltLight/Light/SeptOct97/blood.htm
- The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Affairs of the U.S. government issues an annual report on religious freedom around the world. The 1997-JUL-22 report, "United States Policies in Support of Religious Freedom: Focus on Christians" is at: www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/
- The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has a series of articles on religious persecution. See: http://www.erlc.com/rliberty/persecution/persecution.htm
- The Christian Persecution Report "is dedicated to serving the body of Christ, through protecting the human rights of Christians." See: http://www.erols.com/tferleman/index.htm
- "The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church," at: http://www.persecutedchurch.org/
- Prayer for the Persecuted Church can be reached at (888) 538-7772
- "Report: 165,000 Christians will be martyred this year," Maranatha Christian Journal, 2000-NOV-21, at: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00b/20001121b.htm
Copyright 1998 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants
on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2006-SEP-13
Author: B.A. Robinson
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