Get a free copy of Parental Rights & Education when you subscribe to our newsletter!
International Christian Concern reports that countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and even the West are “seeing an increasing push toward oppressive control over religion, particularly Christianity, as a consequence of several modern and historical factors converging.”
International Christian Concern (ICC) has released its 2025 Global Persecution Index discussing the increasingly rampant persecution of Christians by Islamic terror groups and authoritarian governments.
ICC, which advocates for and assists persecuted Christians around the world, released its report late last week.
“ICC examined every corner of the world to identify the worst of the worst areas of persecution,” ICC President Jeff King said. “Approximately 300 million Christians worldwide face persecution of all types, including imprisonment, torture, and assassination.”
ICC lists more than 20 countries as “zones of persecution.”
Red zones are areas “where Christians are regularly tortured or killed for their faith.” They include the African region known as the Sahel, which is made up of several countries south of the Sahara Desert; Nigeria; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Somalia; Eritrea; Afghanistan; Pakistan; and North Korea.
Orange zones are areas “where governments, local authorities, and nationalistic groups severely oppress the rights of Christians,” and they include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and China.
Yellow zones are those areas “where Christians endure attacks, arrests, and oppression,” which include Azerbaijan, Egypt, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nicaragua.
The report notes that in Africa, where nearly half of all deaths due to religious extremism occur, the primary driver of Christian persecution is Islamic terrorism. ICC argues that while many thought that the Islamic State had been eliminated after its military defeat in the Middle East, the terrorist organization instead shifted its focus to Africa.
The Islamic State and its proxies, al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, and Boko Haram, have waged a targeted and horrifying war on African Christians. ICC argues that the combination of weak governments and severe poverty has enabled some of the terrorist groups to garner support from the destitute because some of the terror factions provide food, services, and infrastructure to Muslim citizens.
In Nigeria, thousands of Christians have been killed as part of a relentless Islamic jihad campaign by Boko Haram and Fulani tribesmen.
ICC notes that Boko Haram, known for kidnapping children to use as wives or soldiers, is so extreme that even the Islamic State (IS) has severed ties with the group, and ICC claims that more damage has been done to Boko Haram due to fighting with IS than from the government.
Boko Haram was founded as an Islamic school in 2002, and its rigid interpretation of Islam soon led it to wage jihad. According to ICC, the group has a hierarchy of perceived enemies, with Christians being its primary targets followed by governments and moderate Muslims. Boko Haram’s targeting of moderate Muslims is what reportedly caused the divide with IS.
ICC says that the Islamic State-West Africa Province is funding the Fulani tribesmen’s brutal persecution of Christians.
Eritrea differs from other African nations in that the severe persecution of its Christians is being inflicted by a Maoist-style authoritarian government, rather than by Islamic terrorists. The nation’s president, Isaias Afwerki, traveled to China in the 1960s to study Maoism and brought its authoritarian policies back to Africa.
Eritrea remains close with China today and enacts similar tyrannical measures. For example, Afwerki has outlawed all outside media, and anyone who dissents from the government’s official ideology and beliefs can be tortured, killed, or placed in inhumane prison conditions, such as being crammed into shipping containers in the desert.
The ICC Report notes that in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Islamic oppression of Christians and women is instituted by the government and terrorist groups, which in the case of Afghanistan are one and the same.
The Taliban, Afghanistan’s current leaders, promised moderation and respect for women and minorities before the Biden administration’s horrific withdrawal from the nation, but those promises, to no one’s surprised, have not been kept.
The Taliban now enforces Sharia law and severely restricts the rights of women. It also reportedly has a bounty on Christians, encouraging other Afghanis to report them.
While many Christians fled to Pakistan after the Taliban took over, they have experienced similar persecution in their new country. Pakistan has also already deported many of the refugees back to Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, blasphemy and anti-conversion laws are used to persecute religious minorities. The government also relegates Christians to the lowest rungs of society and prevents them from obtaining an education or highly skilled work.
Despite the persecution, ICC reports that the Church is growing rapidly, most notably in Iran and Indonesia.
Why is Christian persecution continuing to rise around the world? King attributes it to the growth of ideological and government authoritarianism.
“The world is seeing an increasing push toward oppressive control over religion, particularly Christianity, as a consequence of several modern and historical factors converging. Christians face oppression in more countries than any other faith group, with significant challenges in regions like the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
In many authoritarian states, Christianity is seen as a proxy for Western influence and values, which regimes often reject as imperialistic or destabilizing. Christianity and other faiths emphasize allegiance to a higher moral authority, which inherently challenges authoritarian regimes that demand complete loyalty to the state.”
What’s more, the ICC reported that even traditionally Christian-majority countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela “saw a big increase in hostility toward religious groups critical of authoritarian regimes. The targeting of religious citizens and suppression of dissenting voices marked a new and alarming trend.”
For America these trends should motivate us to pray for Christians and others who are persecuted and to thank God for our freedom and prosperity.
The global situation should, of course, motivate us to call for changes in these nations, but it should also motivate us to safeguard our own freedoms. The right to free speech, to bear arms, and to freely exercise our religion in America must be fiercely protected from restriction, otherwise authoritarians or secular mobs will happily take away our right to live according to our Christian beliefs.
As we now seeing in Europe, nations that are willing to even moderately cede their longstanding Christian principles to make room for secularism and Islam will eventually find their Christian beliefs subsumed and their Christian citizens subjugated.
American Christians must pray for revival and do their civic duty to ensure it doesn’t ultimately take permanent root in the United States.
If you like this article and other content that helps you apply a biblical worldview to today’s politics and culture, consider making a donation here.
