The Spectator

Grace under fire | 15 January 2011

Almost 20 years ago, Samuel Huntingdon forecast a ‘clash of civilisations’.

issue 15 January 2011

Almost 20 years ago, Samuel Huntingdon forecast a ‘clash of civilisations’.

Almost 20 years ago, Samuel Huntingdon forecast a ‘clash of civilisations’. In the past few months, this clash has become outright war.

Christian minorities, who have lived peacefully in Muslim countries for generations, are finding themselves subject to increasingly violent persecution. Churches are being attacked in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Philippines. The recent assassination in Pakistan of a Muslim politician who defended a Christian woman sentenced to death for ‘insulting’ Islam was particularly shocking.

Pakistan has had blasphemy laws since its inception, but never before have they been used to persecute Christians. The Church of England has had a bishop in Lahore since 1877 to minister to Pakistan’s three million Christians, but only now has this become a dangerous mission. The victims are not just Christians.

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