Christian Genocide Is on the Rise as World Leaders Have ‘Stood by and Watched,’ Persecution Watchdog Head Accuses
ICC Note:
There was a rise in the genocide of Christians in 2014. Persecution was not new in 2014, it has been on an upward swing for the last 10 years, with world governments, including the United States, turning a blind-eye. North Korea has topped the list, for 13 years, as the most brutal and dangerous country in the world to be a Christian.
by STOYAN ZAIMOV
1/8/2015 North Korea(Christian Post)-Persecution watchdog group Open Doors has accused the U.S. and world leaders of standing by and watching Christian genocide happen in 2014, following the release of its World Watch List of countries where followers of Christ are most heavily targeted. The group added that Christian persecution is very much a “leading indicator” of major humanitarian problems, such as the rise of terror group ISIS.
Open Doors CEO David Curry told The Christian Post in a phone interview on Wednesday that “there has been a genocide of Christians in Iraq, and the Western world stood by and watched it happen.”He added that for 2015, he would like to see world leaders “understand that the persecution of Christians is a leading indicator, around the world, of major humanitarian problems. It’s not that Christians are collateral damage; it’s that they’re being targeted — and wherever they are being targeted, there are future problems.”
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North Korea remained at the very top of the WWL for the 13th consecutive year. Curry said that despite the release of Korean-American Christian missionary Kenneth Bae and a couple of other western citizens that had been detained by the government of Kim Jong Un, those cases do not, in any way, show that North Korea is softening its harsh treatment of Christians.
“It is number one on the WWL, the most brutal and dangerous place in the world to be a Christian, because the government requires and enforces with hostility a total dedication to the hero worship of their leader. So it’s gotten more dangerous in North Korea, not less,” the Open Doors CEO said.
“I think the fact that he [Kim] has released one or two foreigners likely has to do with some political consideration, but it has not changed their posture or their position on Christians within their country. Christians are the number one enemy of the state, according to North Korea, and they treat them with great brutality.”
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Open Doors warned that Christian persecution around the world is likely to continue rising in 2015, unless world leaders take more concrete actions to safeguard the religious and human rights of people.
“They need to support the human rights issues revolving around freedom of religious expression,” Curry concluded.
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