‘Persecuted and Forgotten?’ is the name of the latest report by Aid to the Church in Need. Unfortunately, there is no need for that question mark in the title. Both the persecution and the oblivion are facts. Christians have been victims of the genocide in Isis-controlled parts of Iraq and Syria. In 2011, there were 150,000 Christians in Aleppo and now there are 35,000. Persecution rises in other Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Sudan and Iran. In Nigeria, 1.8 million people have been displaced by Boko Haram. In India, there is much more harassment of Christians since Narendra Modi came to power in 2015. In China, there are now thought to be 127 million Christians. This upsets President Xi Jinping, who sees Christianity as a form of ‘foreign infiltration’ and seeks to ‘sinicise’ it. When the American student Otto Warmbier died after returning to America in a coma following his incarceration in North Korea, the Communist government blamed his allegedly subversive behaviour on the Friendship United Methodist Church, even though Mr Warmbier was Jewish: Christians are seen as spies.
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