Open Doors World Watch List 2025: ‘Over 380 million Christians face persecution and discrimination worldwide’
“More than 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution and discrimination because of their faith. That is one in seven Christians worldwide. Of the approximately 100 countries monitored, the rate of persecution in absolute terms has continued to escalate, with 13 countries reaching extreme levels over the past 12 years: these are some of the findings of the World Watch List 2025 (WWL), the latest list of the top 50 countries in the world where Christians face the highest levels of persecution, released in Rome on Wednesday by Open Doors, a Christian organisation that has provided assistance to persecuted Christians around the world since 1955. Four categories of persecuted Christians were surveyed during the reporting period (1 October 2023 – 30 September 2024). These were: “communities of expatriate or immigrant Christians; historic Christian communities (including Roman Catholic, Orthodox and traditional Protestant churches); non-traditional Christian communities’ (such as Evangelicals, Baptists, Pentecostals and/or other Christian communities not included in the above two groups); and Converts to Christianity’ (from Islam, Hinduism, etc., who are often the most persecuted).”
The world’s most dangerous places for Christians. There are thirteen countries in the world where Christians face the most extreme forms of persecution.
North Korea remains the worst place to be a Christian
The WWL 2025 reports: “the North Korean regime’s zero-tolerance policy concerning Christians – with an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 believers in forced labour camps – requires Christians to practise their faith in secrecy, thereby fostering the phenomenon of the underground Church.” The report denounces “brutal interrogations of North Korean fugitives forcibly repatriated by China (which sentences them to imprisonment, torture and, in some cases, death).”
The top five nations are all “strongly Islamic”, indicating that “Islamic oppression remains a major source of anti-Christian intolerance,” with Somalia ranking second, Yemen third, Libya fourth and Sudan fifth. The report identified the following drivers of persecution: “tribal Islamic societies, violent extremism and the endemic instability in those countries where Christians must keep their faith a secret and where being discovered can be a death sentence (especially in the case of ex-Muslim Christians).
Due to escalating levels of persecution in other countries, Eritrea has fallen to sixth place, confirming its reputation as ‘Africa’s North Korea’. Similarly, Nigeria has dropped to seventh place and is the country with the highest number of Christians killed in the world (3,100). Pakistan (8th), Iran (9th) and Afghanistan (10th) complete this dismal ranking. In Afghanistan, the situation for Christians has worsened with the rise of the Taliban in 2021, “with many Christians killed (in a widespread manhunt), a significant number fleeing abroad, and a smaller percentage remaining in hiding to practise their faith in secret”. India is ranked 11th, followed by Saudi Arabia, where “despite some positive developments in religious freedom, significant restrictions remain.” Myanmar deserves special mention, ranking 13th as a country where religious persecution is among the most severe. “The civil war has intensified the violence: Christians are caught up in ongoing clashes throughout the country. Christian churches, suspected of harbouring rebels, are repeatedly attacked by the military. At the same time, the same rebel forces are attacking Christian communities: at least 100,000 Christians are stranded in IDP camps to escape the violence.”
Churches attacked, Christians imprisoned and digital persecution. The number of Christians killed for reasons related to their faith dropped from 4,998 to 4,476, with Nigeria accounting for most of the decline, as murders fell from 4,118 to 3,100, although this country remains the epicentre of atrocities as violence and attacks on communities increase, just as Christian casualties increased in other WWL 2025 countries (from 880 to 1,376). The number of Christian churches or Christian public properties attacked, closed or confiscated fell by almost 50 per cent – from 14,766 to 7,679, according to the report. This decline was driven by China, which nevertheless saw a record number of 31,000 churches closed, confiscated or demolished since 2016. In Rwanda, however, this figure rose from 120 to 4,000.
“Digital persecution” remains one of the most effective tools used by the Chinese government and, more recently, by other authoritarian regimes to suppress religious freedom.China’ so-called “population control system” and development without rights “model” is being dangerously replicated in other countries to which China exports technology for this purpose.
The number of Christians imprisoned or sentenced for reasons related to their faith rose to 4,744 (4,125). The level of injustice involved, denounces WWL 2025, “is surreal: men and women are imprisoned without trial or evidence.” Moreover, the degree of impunity often granted to the perpetrators of trumped-up charges or deadly attacks against Christians around the world is extremely worrying”. India is again confirmed as the country with the most alarming data this year (2,176). The report recorded a decrease in the number of kidnappings from 3,906 to 3,775, with Nigeria recording the highest number of kidnappings for ransom (2,830). Mexico, with 116 such cases, reflects the extent to which organised crime has affected the country. Several sub-Saharan African countries and Pakistan follow, marked by the scourge of abductions of Christian girls and women for the purpose of forced marriage to Muslims.”
Physical assaults and attacks on businesses and homes. More than 54,700 Christians (up from 42,800 in 2024) were assaulted (beaten or subjected to death threats) simply because of their faith. This figure does not fully reflect the level of insecurity and fear caused by the unrelenting wave of attacks on Christians and Christian communities by Islamic terrorist groups and other radical religious groups in many Sub-Saharan and Asian countries, affecting millions of people (16.2 million displaced Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, not counting the families of those killed, raped or detained). The number of attacks on Christian homes, shops and businesses has increased from over 27,100 in 2023 to over 28,368 in 2024, often permanently crippling people’s livelihood and forcing them to flee.
The Refugee Church phenomenon continues to grow,
owing to a growing number of refugees and displaced persons worldwide: the combination of violence, threats and discrimination makes escaping the only option. The cradle of Christianity is losing most of its Christian communities as the Middle East remains a theatre of instability. The spotlight is on Syria, which is ranked 18th – down from 12th – but the WWL 2025 figures do not take into account the recent fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime. “The pressure of daily harassment faced by Christian communities is both devastating and increasing. It takes many forms: discrimination in the workplace, denial of access to health care and education, pressure and threats to renounce the Christian faith, denied access to disaster relief, cumbersome bureaucracy hindering the registration of congregations and more still.”
Violence and abuse against women. The figures presented by the WWL 2025 are but “the tip of the iceberg of ongoing, under-reported domestic violence, especially against women and children.” Due to the low number of complaints, reliable data on the number of victims of rape and sexual violence for faith-related reasons is hard to obtain. Nevertheless, the authors of the survey managed to collect the testimonies of 3,994 victims, up from 3,231 the previous year. There were 821 cases of forced marriages of young Christian women (compared to 609 in 2023).
(Fonte: AgenSIR – News archiviata in #TeleradioNews ♥ il tuo sito web © Diritti riservati all’autore)
