The Most Dangerous Countries for Christians & How to Help

Throughout the world, millions of Christians fear for their lives simply because of their beliefs.  Oppressive governments, extremist Islamic leaders, and other forces are pushing Jesus followers into the dark. Here are some of the countries where Christians are facing the most difficult situations, and what you can do to help.

 

 

 

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Afghanistan 

Population: 32 Million Religion: Muslim 99.8%, Christian 0.05%

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  Taliban and Islamic Extremism All Afghan Christians come from a Muslim background. Believers who are discovered face discrimination from family and community, Muslim clergy and local authorities. The government treats converts in a hostile manner, using any means possible to make them recant. Christians cannot meet in public; meetings in private homes are possible. However they require great caution. Not a single official Christian church building remains in Afghanistan.

What can you do?

  • Give to Afghani Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution under Taliban rule.
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.

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Egypt

Population: 82.5 Million

Religion: Muslim 88%, Christian 12%

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  Islamic Extremism – the Muslim Brotherhood.

In rural areas, Egyptian Coptic Christians are constantly terrorized, while security forces turn a blind eye; Coptic girls are abducted and forced into Islamic marriages. Support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists was growing. The Salafist Nour Party in 2011 won a quarter of the seats in the Egyptian parliament.

What can you do?

  • Give to Egyptian Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution by the Islamic Extremists groups
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.

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Iraq

Population: 35 Million

Religion: Shia 60%,  Sunni 37%, Others 3%.

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  ISIS – Islamic Extremism

Over the past year, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria aka ISIS emboldened by the Arab spring and the Syrian crisis, heightened Sunni-Shia’ tensions through a series of inhumane brutal attacks, rapes, murder, beheadings and kidnappings in Iraq.

What can you do?

  • Give to Iraqi Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution under Islamic Extremism and evil.
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.

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Nigeria

Population: 175 Million

Religion: Muslim 50%, Christian 50%

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  Boko Haram, a Jihadist Islamist group Muslim with links to Al-Qaeda which wants Islamic systems under Sharia law.

Boko Haram translated means ‘Western Education is forbidden’.  remains an uncompromising Islamic terrorist group in Northern Nigeria. Their brutality and is only second dot IRSIS. Boko Haram seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia (Islamic law), ridding the country of Christianity. The country’s president, Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed, has embraced a version of Sharia that mandates the death penalty for those who leave Islam. Source: Compass Direct News.

What can you do?

  • Give to Nigerian Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.

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Somalia

Population: 10.5Million

Religion: Muslim 99%

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  Al-Shabaab, a Jihadist Islamist group Muslim with links to Al-Qaeda which wants Islamic systems imposed for all Somalia under Sharia law.

Sunni Muslim Sunni Muslim (Islam) is the official religion of the country. Al-Shabab states that all Somalis are born Muslims. Therefore any of those found practicing other faiths or converting to Christianity is considered guilty of “apostasy”, or leaving Islam, and should be put to death. Al-Shabaab seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia (Islamic law), ridding the country of Christianity.

What can you do?

  • Give to Somalia Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution under al-Shabaab Islamic Extremists.
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.

 

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Syria

Population: 21.8 Million

Religion: Majority Sunni Muslim

Ideology: Islam

Threat to Religious Freedom:  Terrorist groups and Islamic Extremism.

*UN estimates, as of mid-March 2014, the Syrian crisis had led to more than 2.5 million regis­tered refugees, mostly in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt. More than half of the UN-registered refugees are women and girls, and close to half of those are under the age of 17. Terrorist organizations use violence to attempt to create of an Islamic state with no room for religious diversity. They terrorist groups mostly aligned with Al-Nusrah front and AQ affiliated group have carried out religiously-motivated attacks and violent executions and massacres against Muslim Alawite, Shi’a, and Christian groups.

*US Commission on International Religious Freedom

What can you do?

  • Give to Syrian Christians
  • Pray for those that are suffering extreme persecution in Syria.
  • Pray that God would bring Justice and Peace to the region.