ICC Releases Annual Hall of Shame Report
The Worlds Ten Worst Persecutors of Christians
You are free to disseminate the following news. We request that you reference ICC (International Christian Concern) and include our web address www.www.persecution.org. Contact Jeremy Sewall, Policy Analyst, 1-800-ICC (422)-5441, [email protected].
(March 7, 2008) The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.www.persecution.org has just released our annual Hall of Shame report on our website. The Hall of Shame is our list of the world’s 10 worst persecutors of Christians based on news reports from the previous year. We publish this annual report to bring attention to the plight of persecuted Christians around the globe.
While ICC believes in religious freedom for all religions, our mission is especially to help Christians. There are more than 200 million Christians worldwide who live in countries where there is overt social or governmental anti-Christian hostility. This hostility is expressed in various forms, from harassment, job discrimination, and imprisonment, to rape, torture, and assassination.
Even though Christians are one of the largest religious groups persecuted for their faith, their plight is almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media. It is troubling that a human rights issue of this magnitude is so often ignored.
In the period covered by this report (December 2006 – December 31, 2007), Christians continued to experience severe persecution for their faith on an alarming scale. Several trends of note were:
1. A crackdown on house churches in China in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics,
2. A continuing campaign by radical Muslims to exterminate Christians from Iraq, and
3. An escalation of radical Hindu attacks against Christians in India, which culminated at the very end of 2007 with a series of mob attacks on Christians villages in the state of Orissa.
The countries on the list are: North Korea, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, Eritrea, Egypt, India, Laos, and Indonesia.
Jeremy Sewall, Policy Analyst for ICC, said, It is our hope that this Hall of Shame report will help motivate persecuting countries and leaders to take concrete action to uphold religious freedom for all their citizens. In the meantime, we hope that this report will be a useful tool for policymakers and fellow advocates to put even greater pressure on those countries that continue to flagrantly violate the most fundamental human right of religious liberty.
Please click here to view the report.
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ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.
