A 14-year-old boy who was kidnapped from a Christian school in Africa by a group of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/radical-islam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical Islamic</a> Fulani herdsmen returned home last week, more than two years after his captivity began.
Treasure Ayuba, one of 121 students who were kidnapped from the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna, Nigeria, finally escaped, according to a local pastor.
“Glory be to God! Glory be to God!! Glory be to God!!!” Pastor Israel Akanji, the President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, wrote on social media. “Treasure Ayuba, the last boy who was still with the bandits who kidnapped the 121 students of Bethel Baptist High School, Kaduna, on July 5, 2021, has just returned home!”
Ayuba had been captured by Islamic Fulani herdsmen just days after his 12th birthday and forced to march hours away where he was held hostage, <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/latest-news/treasure-nigeria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Open Doors, an organization that monitors Christian persecution around the world.
“Christians from the Nigerian Baptist Convention, which runs Bethel High School, were forced to negotiate with the terrorists over ransom demands,” local pastor Winyadebi Rolis said. “When the convention first started negotiating with the extremists over ransom payments, they thought that all the children would be released. However, to the anguish of the parents, the children were only released in batches with extremists then demanding more money to release the next batch of students.”
Some of the payments demanded by the kidnappers exceeded $300,000. Ayuba’s captors reportedly planned to hold him until he converted to Islam. Ayuba did not and was able to slip away, making it back home where he showed up at his mom’s house, according to Open Doors.
“Treasure somehow managed to sneak away and escape from the extremists,” Winyadebi said. “He walked at night and hid during the day. Eventually he found hunters who took him to his hometown and from there he was able to find his way home.&#8221;
He was the last student to make it home and is expected to receive trauma counseling.
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Nigeria is one the worst countries in the world for Christian persecution, with thousands being killed every year. Christians in the African nation have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46-nigerian-christians-killed-in-terrorists-attacks-as-government-accused-of-negligence-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> the government of negligence and asked them to take stronger steps to counter the violence.

NIGERIA-UNREST-KIDNAPPING-CRIME

14-Year-Old Returns Home 2 Years After Being Captured From Christian School In Nigeria

14-Year-Old Returns Home Two Years After Being Captured From Christian School In Nigeria

Africa

Christianity

Nigeria

Persecution

Radical Islam

Terrorism

World

Forty-six <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/persecution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christians were killed</a> over two days after terrorists in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nigeria" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nigeria</a> targeted Christian villages, according to a new report. 
The killings happened on June 3 and 4 in the southern Nigerian villages of Michihe, Achamegh and Mbagene Kpav, and Imande Mbakange, Morning Star News <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/46-christians-killed-amid-2-days-of-attacks-in-nigeria.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. In the wake of the killings, local leaders have accused Nigeria&#8217;s government of turning a blind eye to the violence. 
“Altogether, 46 Christians were killed by the terrorists in the two days of attacks on our communities,” a statement from the Shitile Development Association (SDA) said. “Most disturbing also is the fact that the identity of the perpetrators is known to security agencies and the Nigerian government, and yet nothing has been done to end this carnage.”
Militant Islamic Fulani herdsmen, a nomadic group that is known to frequently attack Christians in the African country, have been accused of orchestrating the attacks. The recent attack comes as some religious freedom advocates have said that the persecution of Christians in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African</a> nation should be seen as genocide.
“As our people are fleeing, herders are occupying these areas and grazing freely on our farms,” the statement from the SDA said. “Though due to the fear of general insecurity, it is difficult to move from village to village to gather exact statistics, hordes of lives have been horrendously eliminated in several villages across the land, such that the whole land is thrown into wailing and mourning.”
Local council official Alfred Atera condemned the attacks, calling on the security agencies to end the violence. 
“These senseless killings by the terrorists are inhuman and barbaric. I call on all security agencies to double their efforts in combating these renewed attacks as a matter of urgency,” Atera said. 
Police in Benue, the state where the attacks took place, said that they had sent police and security personnel to the area to stop the violence. 
The attack in Benue follows weeks of recent attacks in the Plateau state, where 28 Christian churches were destroyed and a reported 300 Christians killed. The destruction <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/hundreds-of-christians-killed-in-3-weeks-of-attacks-in-nigeria.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> led to the displacement of about 30,000 Christians in the state.
A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-report-estimates-that-over-8000-nigerian-christians-killed-kidnapped-last-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent report put ou</a>t by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that over 5,000 Nigerian Christians were killed in 2022 while over 3,000 were kidnapped.
The perpetrators are believed to be members of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/radical-islam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical Islamic</a> terror groups, including Fulani herdsmen groups, Boko Haram, and ISAWP (Islamic State West Africa Province).

NIGERIA-FULANI-CONFLICT

46 Nigerian Christians Killed In Terrorist Attacks As Government Accused Of Negligence: Report

Crime

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/north-korea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Korean</a> authorities sentenced an entire family, including a two-year-old child, to life in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/persecution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prison</a> after one of the family members was found to be in possession of a <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bible</a>.
The incident, which occurred in 2009 but surfaced in a recent <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/north-korea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on worldwide religious freedom from the State Department, is one of several harrowing punitive measures levied against Christians and other minority groups in North Korea. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/communism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">communist</a> hereditary dictatorship sent the two-year-old child and the rest of the family to political prison camps, where inmates routinely experience harsh physical mistreatment and dire conditions.
There are estimated to be between 50,000 and 70,000 citizens in prison camps for their Christian faith, according to a report from nonprofit ministry Open Doors referenced by the State Department. North Korean officials prompt all citizens to “report anyone engaged in unauthorized religious activity or in possession of religious material,” while those deemed to be guilty of maintaining Christian beliefs undergo secret prosecutions and can face life sentences “imposed on up to three generations of the immediate family of the person found guilty.”
Korea Future, another nonprofit organization, has shared credible reports of Christians who received the death penalty for their faith: one woman and her grandchild were allegedly executed via firing squad in 2011, while a group of six were executed four years later.
North Korea, while famous across the world for the dire poverty and the restrictions on religious freedom which followed the founding of the Kim regime, was once a bulwark of the Christian faith in Asia. Pyongyang, the nation’s capital city, was once called the “Jerusalem of the East” and was home to a number of Christian schools, as well as a Presbyterian seminary.
“Pyongyang once stood as a symbol of faith, evangelical fervor, and theological fidelity,” Joel Kim, the president of Westminster Seminary California, wrote in an <a href="https://www.challies.com/articles/what-city-was-once-the-jerusalem-of-the-east/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> five years ago. “Perhaps naïve, but I join many around the world in praying for Pyongyang that it will once again become the shining light on a hill where Christ is known and proclaimed.”
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Pyongyang has five state-sanctioned churches, three of which are Protestant, one of which is Roman Catholic, and one of which is Russian Orthodox. “One defector said that when he lived in Pyongyang, authorities arrested individuals whom they believed lingered too long outside these churches to listen to the music or consistently drove past them each week when services were being held, on suspicion of being secret Christians,” the report from the State Department noted. “This defector also said authorities quickly realized one unintended consequence of allowing music at the services and permitting persons to attend church was that many attendees converted to Christianity, and therefore authorities took steps to mitigate that outcome.”
North Korea is still estimated to have between 100,000 and 400,000 adherents to the Christian faith, even as spiritual practices like consulting fortune-tellers or participating in shamanistic rituals are “reportedly widespread but difficult to quantify.” Practitioners of the superstitions also face crackdowns from North Korean authorities but are subjected to a separate legal process.

Kim Jong-Un

North Korea Sentenced Two-Year-Old To Life In Prison After Family Caught With Bible: State Department

Bible

Global Politics

North Korea

Religion

Religious Freedom

A new report has estimated that over 5,000 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nigeria" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nigerian</a> Christians were killed in 2022 while over 3,000 were kidnapped.
The <a href="https://intersociety-ng.org/5068-citizens-massacred-for-being-christians-in-nigeria-in-2022-1041-slaughtered-in-first-100-days-of-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, put out by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), comes as some religious freedom advocates have said that the persecution of Christians in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African</a> nation should be seen as genocide.
&#8220;[Intersociety] is emotionally dedicating this special investigative Report to 1,041 slain and disappeared victims of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and other Jihadists&#8217; genocidal attacks carried out across Nigeria in the first 100 days of 2023,&#8221; the report says. &#8220;The under-listed slain and wounded victims also represent 5,068 others slain or caused to disappear without traces till date by Nigerian Jihadists in 2022.&#8221;
The estimates were based on reports from a variety of sources, including media outlets, government reports, nongovernmental organizations statistics, and estimates from diplomats. The report also said that over 1,000 Christians have been killed in 2023.
Intersociety said that the violence was most prevalent in the states of Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Niger, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Kebbi, <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-5000-christians-killed-in-nigeria-in-2022-ngo.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to</a> The Christian Post. Violence has long plagued the African country, with the northern part being more Islamic and the southern region more Christian.
The perpetrators are believed to be members of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/radical-islam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical Islamic</a> terror groups, including Fulani herdsmen groups, Boko Haram, and ISAWP (Islamic State West Africa Province). According to the report, the Nigerian military is also responsible for some of the killings. Many Nigerian Christians have long asked for the government to do more to stop the killings and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nigerian-pastor-says-government-fully-supports-killings-of-christians-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have accused them</a> of encouraging the violence.
The report, which was compiled by criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, is also critical of Christian leaders in the country. “The dry material quest and lackadaisical attitudes of the Nigerian Christian leaders are also forcing Christian converts to leave the Church in droves to embrace other non-Christian denominations,” the report says. “It must be warned that if extreme care is not taken to rescue the Christendom and the Church, the churches or church buildings in Nigeria will become the present day Turkish church monuments in fifty years time or less than that.”
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The news comes just months after the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> kept Nigeria off of a religious liberty watchlist for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/victory-for-the-terrorists-blinken-faces-backlash-after-taking-nigeria-off-of-religious-violence-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second year</a> in a row. In December, the State Department drew the ire of religious liberty advocates for leaving Nigeria off its <a href="https://www.state.gov/religious-freedom-designations-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list</a> of “Countries of Particular Concern list,” a government watch list for countries that endorse or allow religious violence.

NIGERIA-UNREST-FUNERAL

New Report Estimates That Over 8,000 Nigerian Christians Killed, Kidnapped Last Year

Christians

Religious Liberty

Sixty-three Chinese <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christians</a> who were facing expulsion back to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/china" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China</a> have been given shelter in the United States after being detained in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/thailand" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thailand</a>.
The Christians are members of the Shenzhen Holy Reform Church, also known as the “Mayflower Church,” and left China due to religious persecution in November 2019. They had hoped to be granted refugee status in Thailand by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-nations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Nations</a>, but instead they faced immigration-related charges. 
After negotiations with the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the U.N, Thailand agreed to let the U.S. take in the Christians, who hope to become permanent residents of the U.S. 
“ChinaAid welcomes the landing of the persecuted Chinese ‘Mayflower Church’ to freedom in America, and welcomes them to Texas,” ChinaAid Founder Bo Fu <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/04/05/us_steps_up_efforts_to_help_chinese_christians__149072.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a Friday statement, according to RealClearPolitics. “This is truly a Good Friday. Barely a week ago, members of the Mayflower Church were still incarcerated in a jail facing imminent danger of [Chinese Communist Party] kidnapping threats. Now they are safe and free.”
The group, led by Pastor Pan Yongguang, a minister ordained by the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), landed at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Friday. It had been a tumultuous three years for the group, who initially had attempted to stay in South Korea before moving to Thailand. 
&#8220;This is a successful example of nonpartisan, international cooperation,&#8221; ChinaAid CEO Chad Bullard <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/chinas-mayflower-church-members-resettled-in-us-after-3-years.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;We are thankful to all parties including various U.S. government agencies, particularly the State Department&#8217;s International Religious Freedom Office led by Ambassador Rashad Hussain, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, USCIRF, and a number of congressional offices including Chairman Mike McCaul and Chairman Chris Smith.&#8221; 
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Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, was pleased with the news. “It is a very Good Friday indeed, and a perfect Easter gift to see these persecuted Chinese Christians arrive and be allowed to practice their faith freely in the United States,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Had they been forcibly repatriated to China, they would have been jailed and severely persecuted.&#8221;
Other lawmakers who asked the State Department to intervene on behalf of the Chinese Christians included Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). 
“I was proud to assist in the effort to get them to safety alongside many others, including Ambassador Godec and the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the State Department’s legislative team, key members of Congress, the Royal Thai Government, and Ambassador Tanee and the Royal Thai Embassy,&#8221; Cruz said in a statement. &#8220;I am especially grateful for ChinaAid and Freedom Seekers International, and for the people of Tyler, Texas who have welcomed the congregation into their homes. Because of their generosity and diligence, the Mayflower Church can now share in the freedoms that we enjoy every day in America.”

CHINA-VATICAN-DIPLOMACY-RELIGION-RIGHTS

63 Chinese Christians Find Refuge In America On Good Friday After Fleeing Persecution

China

Texas

Thailand

United Nations

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a> has kept <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nigeria" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nigeria</a> off of a religious liberty watchlist for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/victory-for-the-terrorists-blinken-faces-backlash-after-taking-nigeria-off-of-religious-violence-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second year</a> in a row even as thousands of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christians</a> have been reportedly killed in the African nation. 
On Friday, the State Department drew the ire of religious liberty advocates for leaving Nigeria off its <a href="https://www.state.gov/religious-freedom-designations-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list</a> of “Countries of Particular Concern list,” a government watch list for countries that endorse or allow religious violence. 
“Secretary Blinken&#8217;s continued refusal to place Nigeria on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) when the Biden administration should be confronting President Buhari is appalling,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/2/religious-liberty-panel-others-blast-blinken-omitt/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_source=socialnetwork" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Washington Times. 
Smith, the ranking member of the Africa subcommittee for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, added that there would be oversight over the decision with the new Congress in January. 
“The deterioration of human rights in Nigeria — the topic of congressional hearings I have chaired — and the Biden administration’s totally unjustified retreat from the fight to protect victims of religious persecution means there will be an oversight item in the new Congress,” he said. 
A spokesperson for the State Department told the Times that Secretary of State <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/antony-blinken" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antony Blinken</a> “determined that the status of religious freedom in Nigeria did not meet the legal threshold” to be included on the list.” The spokesperson added that Nigeria was still a “concern” and that the State Department would “press” the country’s government to address religious liberty concerns. 
United States Commissioner on International Religious Freedom Chair Nury Turkel disagreed with Blinken’s decision, saying that conditions in Nigeria “clearly” merited its inclusion on the list. 
The decision to keep Nigeria off the list came following <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/nigeria-4000-christians-killed-over-2300-abducted-this-year.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that thousands of Christians have been killed or abducted this year in the West African nation. According to a report put out last month by the International Society for Civil Liberty and Rule of Law, over 4,000 Christians have been killed and 2,000 kidnapped by Islamic jihadist groups. 
The group accused Nigeria’s government of being being “friendly” to some of the terrorist groups, while others have demanded the government take more action to crack down on Christian persecution. 
Before the State Department&#8217;s decision, the Alliance Defending Freedom and Established By Revelation Media put out a <a href="https://stopkillingchristians.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">petition</a> urging the Biden administration to put Nigeria back on the CPC list.
“We cannot remain silent while our brothers and sisters are being persecuted and martyred for their faith. The killings must stop. The torture must stop. The least we can do as Americans is take a stand by acknowledging the very real evil taking place in Nigeria at this time,” the petition said. 
Nigeria is ranked as the seventh most difficult country in the world to be a Christian, <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/nigeria/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Open Doors, a group that monitors Christian persecution around the world.

USA v Wales: Group B – FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

‘Appalling’: Biden Admin Blasted For Leaving Nigeria Off Religious Violence List After Reportedly Thousands Of Killings

'Appalling': Biden Admin Blasted For Leaving Nigeria Off Religious Violence List After Reportedly Thousands Of Killings

Antony Blinken

Biden Admin

The persecution of Christians in at least 18 countries throughout the world has been increasing, according to a new report. 
The <a href="https://www.churchinneed.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ACN_Exec-Summary-2020-22.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, titled “Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report On Christians Oppressed For Their Faith 2020-22,” was released on November 16 by the Catholic group Aid to the Church In Need. It examined “human rights violations” in 24 countries where the persecution of Christians is “of particular concern” and revealed that the conditions in 18 of those countries have gotten “worse” or “slightly worse” for Christians. 
“Religious nationalism and authoritarianism intensified problems for the faithful &#8211; including the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, which prompted Christians and other minorities to attempt a desperate scramble to escape,” the report stated, explaining some factors behind the rise. 
The 18 countries were mainly in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. They include China, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Pakistan, Myanmar, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, India, and Qatar. The results are from 2020-2022 and are compared with data from 2017-2019. 
Each nation reviewed in Africa experienced declining conditions for Christians. The report attributes the persecution on the continent largely to “militant non-state actors” and Islamic extremism, citing specifically Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province. Nigeria is reportedly “on the brink of becoming a failed state” due to jihadism, facing kidnappings, attacks on churches, and priests being murdered.
As for the Middle East, migration has threatened areas the report describes as the “world’s oldest and most important Christian communities located in Iraq, Syria, and Palestine.” In 2011, before the war began, 10%, or approximately 1.5 million people in Syria were Christian. A decade later, there are 300,000 Christians, less than 2% of the population, the report says. 
One of the primary drivers for the persecution of Christians in Asia comes from authoritarianism from the state, harshly affecting nations like China, Vietnam, and North Korea. “China continues to harass and attempt to control Christians and members of other religious groups that will not accept the official Communist Party line &#8211; making it unsurprising that in the Pew Forum’s analysis authorities’ restrictions on religion it achieved the highest score of any nation-state,” the report stated. 
Open Doors USA, a Christian <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">organization</a> committed to serving persecuted Christians, releases a “World Watch List” annually outlining the top 50 countries where persecution of Christians is highest. According to the 2022 World Watch List, China ranks 17th for Christian persecution. Surveillance is a significant issue, allowing the state to monitor and close down churches, according to the organization. A source told Open Doors that pastors and Christian leaders “are simply snatched away, only to appear months later in a kind of house arrest, where they get re-educated.” 
In Afghanistan, the country thrown into chaos last August when the U.S. completed a hasty withdrawal that ended with a collapse of the American-supported Afghan government, persecution against Christians is worsening. The report cites the rise of the Taliban “driving Christians underground,” where they “live in fear of arrest, torture, and execution.&#8221; Open Doors ranks Afghanistan number one on its watch list, listing Islamic oppression as the primary cause. 
In 2022 there were 360 million Christians living in places where they were at risk for high levels of discrimination and persecution, <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Open Doors. Last year, 5,898 Christians were killed for being Christian, more than 5,000 churches or Christian buildings were attacked, and 4,765 Christians were “detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned.”

Crown of thorns and bible

Persecution Of Christians Rising In At Least 18 Countries Of ‘Particular Concern,’ Report Finds

Persecution Of Christians Rising In At Least 18 Countries Of ‘Particular Concern,' Report Finds

Brother Andrew, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/netherlands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dutch</a> missionary known as “God’s Smuggler” for his work sneaking <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bibles</a> into communist countries during the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-cold-war-what-we-saw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cold War</a>, died at 94 this week.
The missionary, whose real name was Anne van der Bijl, spent a large portion of his life promoting the spread of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity">Christianity</a> into countries where it was unwelcome. He also founded Open Doors, a ministry devoted to helping persecuted Christians around the world. 
“For more than 60 years, Open Doors&#8217; founder — Brother Andrew — visited over 125 countries in service to the global church. It&#8217;s with mixed feelings that we share his greatest journey yet. Brother Andrew has gone home to be with the God he spent his life serving,” Open Doors <a href="https://www.facebook.com/opendoorsfans/posts/pfbid02Qa7ZDxWVj3BfGpFiH3PSGFY1xmVh79F4PLWMZE45MF6WWGauusgnayaYAqovAHgVl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Tuesday. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
For more than 60 years, Open Doors&#39; founder—Brother Andrew—visited over 125 countries in service to the global church. Today, we share his greatest journey yet. Our brother has gone home to be with the God he spent his life serving. 
Celebrate his homecoming w/ us. <a href="https://t.co/PTZZniUWWA">pic.twitter.com/PTZZniUWWA</a>
&mdash; Open Doors USA (@OpenDoors) <a href="https://twitter.com/OpenDoors/status/1574973447700094982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Van der Bijl, who was <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/brother-andrew-missionary-who-fearlessly-crossed-borders-to-smuggle-christian-literature-into-communist-lands-obituary/ar-AA12o6qb?ocid=a2hs">born</a> in the Netherlands in 1928, participated in the Dutch resistance movement after the Nazis invaded in 1940. He joined the Dutch military following the end of World War II, but his military career ended shortly after he was shot in the ankle in the Dutch East Indies.
While recovering from his injuries, van der Bijl started reading the Bible, and he became a Christian in 1950. Just five years later, he would attend a communist conference in Poland bringing Christian materials to give to attendees. This would be the first of many trips into hostile countries behind the Iron Curtain.
The same year he traveled to Poland, he founded Open Doors, which has now supported persecuted Christians for decades. In 2013, van der Bijl <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/gods-smuggler-brother-andrew-dies-at-94.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Christian Post that he believed that persecution strengthened the faith of many Christians in hostile countries. 
“How do we pray? Not for God to remove persecution, but use that to purify the Church. And it is my strong belief that the countries where there is persecution are stronger in faith than churches in countries where there is no persecution,” he told the outlet. 
The missionary would bring or organize the smuggling of Bibles and other Christian materials into Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (from where he was deported once), China, and Cuba. In 1967, van der Bijl co-wrote the book &#8220;God’s Smuggler,&#8221; which detailed his experiences. 
While traveling over borders, van der Bijl said he was a “teacher” and would <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/about/our-history/brother-andrew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pray</a> that God would make the soldiers guarding the borders blind. 
“Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to your children. When you were on earth, you made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things you do not want them to see,” he prayed. 
Van der Bijl is survived by the five children he had with his wife Corrie.

Portrait of Brother Andrew.Press conference for Brother Andrew, a Dutchman who freely admits to amuggling goods into European countries behind the Iron Curtain, China, Uganda, Brazil and many countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.Brother Andrew is

Dutch Missionary, Known As ‘God’s Smuggler’ For Sneaking Bibles Into Communist Countries, Dead At 94

Dutch Missionary, Known As 'God's Smuggler' For Sneaking Bibles Into Communist Countries, Dead At 94

Communism

The Netherlands

One of the legacy media’s most potent forms of bias comes in the stories they do not report. At the top of this list is the persecution of Christians around the world. A 2019 <a href="https://christianpersecutionreview.org.uk/interim-report/">report</a> from the UK <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48146305">found</a> that Christians are “the most persecuted group” of humanity’s myriad of religions, with some areas suffering “genocide.” Now, a new — and, unsurprisingly, ignored — report from <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/">Open Doors USA</a> quantifies the worst perpetrators of anti-Christian repression.
It helps to first understand the scope of worldwide anti-Christian bigotry and violence. Globally, 360 million Christians faced high levels of persecution last year — 15 million more than the year before — according to the group’s “<a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/2022-world-watch-list-report">2022 World Watch List</a>.” The number of Christians <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%207%3A9-17&amp;version=nkjV">killed for their faith</a> increased from 4,761 in its 2021 report to <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/16-christians-murdered-for-following-jesus-every-day/">5,898</a> in this year’s edition. The organization reports:
During the 2022 World Watch List reporting period (from October 2020 to September 2021):
<ul>
<li>5,110 Churches or Christian buildings were attacked</li>
<li>4,765 Christians were unjustly arrested, detained or imprisoned</li>
<li>3,829 Christians were abducted for faith-related reasons.</li>
</ul>
That means an average of 16 Christians are killed each day, 13 are arrested, and 10 are kidnapped because they profess that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A9-11&amp;version=NKJV">Jesus Christ is Lord</a>.
In all, the group found 11 nations guilty of “extreme persecution” of Christians. The six nations that ranked eleventh through sixth are: Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, India, and Saudi Arabia.
The five worst offenders are:
5. Yemen
The few thousand people among Yemen’s 30 million citizens who profess to be Christians suffer constant pressure in every aspect of daily life. “Christians in Yemen continue to face physical and mental abuse, sexual harassment and rape, as well as forced marriages and expulsion for faith-related reasons,” Open Doors USA <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/yemen/">states</a>.
The Christians’ suffering has worsened during the eight-year-long civil war between the Saudi-backed government and rebel Houthis. “According to the UN Group of Experts, harassment of Christians, mostly attributable to the Houthis, increased since the outbreak of the war,” <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom/yemen/">reported</a> the U.S. State Department. Much of the humanitarian aid is “distributed through local Muslim leaders and local mosques,” who discriminate “against anyone who is not considered to be a devout Muslim,” Open Doors says.
4. Libya
Libya’s 34,600 Christians suffer from the nation’s instability and incessant warfare, which often gives Islamists cover to violate their rights with impunity. Believers who look for work are likely to be sent “to criminal officials or human trafficking groups where they are forced into heavy labor or pushed into prostitution,” reports Open Doors USA.
The most significant catalyst of Christian persecution has been the destabilization of Libya by then-President Barack Obama. “Unfortunately, the situation in Libya remains the same this year as it has for many years, due in large part to the lack of a central governing authority to break the cycle of armed conflicts in the country,” the organization <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/libya/">notes</a>.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/11/18/world/isis-libya/index.html">reported</a> the results of the nation&#8217;s instability: “The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars carry the group’s insignia. The local football stadium is used for public executions.”
Public slavery <a href="https://time.com/5042560/libya-slave-trade/">resumed</a>, with one man being sold for $400. And the worst act of Christian persecution <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/egyptian-village-engulfed-by-grief-anger-after-21-christian-copts-beheaded-in-libya">occurred</a> when Islamic State terrorists beheaded <a href="https://legacyicons.com/21-new-martyrs-of-libya-icon-s100/">21 Coptic Christians</a> in 2015.
This report shows that the chaos unleashed largely by President Obama’s 2011 intervention continues to victimize Libya’s Christians more than a decade later.
3. Somalia
Although their numbers are estimated in the hundreds, “Christians are viewed as high‐​value targets by Islamic radical groups,” the report notes. “Somalia is one of the few places in the world that has banned the celebration of Christmas.”
Here, too, a military campaign fuels Islamists’ anti-Christian jihad. The terrorist group al-Shabaab portrays “peacekeepers” from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) — who have remained in Somalia since embarking on a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070828223759/http:/www.apanews.net/article.php3?id_article=19420">six-month mission in 2007</a> — as “Christian crusaders,” <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom/somalia/">according</a> to the U.S. State Department’s “2020 Report on International Religious Freedom” (the most recent year available). Humanitarian relief workers also suffer such persecution. By equating Christians with foreign armies, they transfer the hatred of a foreign enemy to domestic Christians, mutatis mutandis. No one is spared the brutality. “We are being hunted down like wild animals,” said the father of a seven-year-old boy whom Muslims hospitalized for being a Christian.
2. North Korea
The report lists an estimated 400,000 secret Christians in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). “[A]ny North Korean caught following Jesus is at immediate risk of imprisonment, brutal torture and death,” it says. “An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians are imprisoned in North Korea’s notorious system of prisons and labor camps.” To make such suffering understandable, the human rights group Korea Future designed an interactive 3-D <a href="https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/onsong-county-mps-detention-centre-be17ecf210364de596ebcedf22d0367c?utm_medium=embed&amp;utm_campaign=share-popup&amp;utm_content=be17ecf210364de596ebcedf22d0367c">representation</a> of the inside of one North Korean prison camp, the Onsong County MPS Detention Centre.
North Korea continues to impose “an almost complete denial by the government of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion,” <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-report-on-international-religious-freedom/north-korea/">according</a> to the State Department. The North Korean government considers religion the greatest threat against its organized form of militant atheism; <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2019/12/how-socialism-causes-atheism/">the secularism that fuels socialism</a> is a jealous, if a false, god. Socialism shuns any allegiance higher than the Messianic State. Despite the intense persecution, North Korean believers often escape into a network of Christian-run safehouses across the border in China — only to <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/north-korea/">return to North Korea</a>, “equipped to carry the gospel to small pockets of believers.”
North Korea, which ranked as the world’s most repressive anti-Christian regime <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/this-is-what-a-north-korean-tithe-looks-like/">for 20 years</a>, actually intensified its persecution during the last year, but it fell to second place after the persecution unleashed in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1. Afghanistan
With President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Kabul, Afghanistan became the world’s most repressive anti-Christian nation. The number of Christians is estimated in the hundreds, but persecution remains intense. “Some women are already being kidnapped, taken from their houses, and forced into marriage, although we don’t know the exact number. Of course, many women will have to buy burqas, especially in the big cities,” <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/whats-really-happening-to-christians-in-afghanistan/">said</a> Open Doors USA’s communications director for Asia.
This is not to say U.S. intervention in Afghanistan is a panacea for religious liberty in Afghanistan; Open Doors notes Afghanistan has steadily increased its anti-Christian oppression during the last two decades. “In many rural areas, it was like the Taliban never left during the last 20 years,” the organization states.
The organization asks people of goodwill to:
<blockquote>Please pray for secret believers in Afghanistan, that they will be protected from the violence of the Taliban. 
Ask God to make Taliban leaders uphold and preserve human life, and that God would turn their hearts from hate to love. 
Pray for Open Doors partners supporting Afghan refugees to be filled with grace and love.</blockquote>
Although there seems to be little believers in the most powerful country can do, we have access to the strongest weapon: prayer. Trite as that may sound, the persecuted church testifies that the prayers of the Body of Christ bring them a mystical comfort that transcends earthly comprehension. “While I was in prison, I could not understand everything, but I felt the Christians in different countries praying for us who were imprisoned. It provided comfort, and it became a source of energy for us,” <a href="https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/north-korea-christians-arrested-martyred-in-secret-worship-gathering/">said</a> a former North Korean prisoner named Hae-Woo. “Even if we cannot meet each other, let us communicate through the Spirit, in Jesus Christ.”
“I believe at God’s appointed time, all the prayers will be answered and there will be freedom of faith in North Korea,” she continued. “Let us endure in patience and wait until that day comes.”

The 5 Worst Nations for Christian Persecution

Readers Pass

As people in the West gear up to celebrate Christmas, the people of China are bracing themselves for the Chinese Communist Party to follow through on its stated plan to intensify its war against the Christian faith. President Xi Jinping has announced that Chinese Christian churches must “cultivate core socialist values,” punish pastors who evangelize or worship without the government’s permission, and instruct the faithful to obey the Communist authorities in their own oppression.
President Xi Jinping and other Communist officials laid down the law at the National Religious Affairs Meeting on December 4, the first national-level meeting about religion in five years. President Xi told religious leaders they must make deliberate “efforts … to keep enhancing the recognition of the motherland, the Chinese nation, the Chinese culture, the CPC [Chinese Communist Party] and socialism with Chinese characteristics among religious personages and believers.” Religious “believers should be guided to cultivate core socialist values and put them into practice,” he said. “Xi also demanded efforts to rally vast religious believers around the [Communist] Party and gozvernment,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency <a href="http://www.news.cn/english/2021-12/04/c_1310352026.htm">reported</a>. In other words, teachers of any of China’s five <a href="https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1068681/download">recognized</a> religions — Buddhism, Taosim, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam — must become apostles of Communism, preaching the pseudo-Gospel of obedience to the State.
Xi wants to assure that churches know their place — or else. Religious belief must not “interfere with educational, judicial and administrative affairs as well as social life,” he <a href="http://www.news.cn/english/2021-12/05/c_1310352966.htm">said</a> on December 4. This is especially true of clergy who teach on social media and the internet, something that has terrified the CCP since the <a href="https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/clm52jb.pdf">last meeting</a> in 2016. Unauthorized prayer or preaching threaten the atheistic regime.
Worse yet, President Xi is calling on church “leaders” to do his bidding for him. To help secure his power, President Xi is instructing churches to crack down on clergy who proclaim the Gospel or worship with fellow believers without the party’s approval. “All religious groups are required to strengthen their self-management,” Xi added. Since President Xi changed party rules to effectively make himself <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276">president for life</a>, churches know they face obedience or Xi’s wrath for many, many years to come.
But the CCP is not leaving the suppression of the Gospel to ecclesiastical leadership. To bring this about, Xi said, he will send “cadres” of Communist agents into churches who are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCedOQJ0ZEA">from the government, and they’re here to help</a>. “[I]t is necessary to cultivate a team of party and government cadres who are proficient in Marxist religious views, familiar with religious work, and good at working with religious believers, and let them study Marxist religious views, the CCP’s religious work theories and policies, and religious knowledge.” A cadre leader must be “firm in ideology and politics, adhere to Marxist religious views … and strengthens the construction of the discipline of Marxist religious studies,” <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/china-ccp-national-conference-on-religion/">reported</a> Bitter Winter magazine, which reports on Christian persecution in China. That follows the Chinese Communist Party’s <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Full-text-of-the-Chinese-Communist-Party-s-new-resolution-on-history">resolution on history</a>, adopted just days before Xi’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinas-xi-jinping-appears-to-mock-biden-with-name-during-meeting-after-biden-denials-over-relationship">virtual meeting</a> with Joe Biden, which says that “religions in China … provided active guidance for the adaptation of religions to socialist society.”
This month’s meeting, which attracted few headlines in the U.S., signaled a new era of deeper persecution. The Communists’ tone was so harsh that even propaganda media couldn’t cover for them. “China tightens control of religion,” <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3158590/china-tightens-control-religion-emphasis-national-security">reported</a> the South China Morning Post, which The New York Times has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/31/world/asia/south-china-morning-post-hong-kong-alibaba.html">said</a> is “pioneering a new form of propaganda” for Beijing. (Pot, meet the kettle.)
Believers have had things bad enough under the 2016 guidance. “Religious freedom conditions in China continue to deteriorate,” <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/countries/china">according</a> to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
“The communist Chinese government has created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor and harass Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falon Gong and other religions,” reported USCIRF. “Independent experts estimate that between 900,000 and 1.8 million Uighur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims have been detained in more than 1,300 concentration camps in Xinjiang.”
Yet the Chinese Communists do not merely persecute believers but insist on changing the substance of the faith itself. The meeting demands that church leaders proceed with what President Xi calls the “sinicisation of religion”: Each faith must be interpreted according to Chinese Communist ideology, and every religion must <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/china-stresses-more-marxism-tightening-control-of-religion/95322">create</a> a “religious theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
The meeting signals that this process of adulterating the faith, which is already apace, will ramp up in the years to come. For example, a Chinese textbook claims that <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2020/12/chinese-communist-gospel-teaches-that-jesus-killed-a-woman/">Jesus Christ killed a woman</a>. A textbook that teaches law and ethics in Chinese secondary schools twists the traditional Gospel story of the woman caught committing adultery. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208%3A3-11&amp;version=KJV">the Gospel</a>, Jesus says that only someone without sin should <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+20%3A10&amp;version=KJV">cast the first stone</a> at her, then tells the woman to “go and sin no more.” The Chinese textbook presents a twist ending: “When the crowd retreated, Jesus raised a stone and killed the woman, and said, ‘<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208%3A46&amp;version=NKJV">I am also a sinner</a>, but if the law can only be executed by a spotless person, then the law will die.’” The story — which the authorities apparently <a href="https://www.sixteensmallstones.org/go-and-sin-no-more-misinterpreting-jesus-and-the-woman-taken-in-adultery/">plagiarized</a> from Orson Scott Card — teaches that citizens should obey government officials “because, honest or corrupted, they represent the [Chinese Communist] Party, and the Party’s law should never be questioned,” <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/ccp-rewriting-the-gospel-jesus-actually-killed-the-woman-taken-in-adultery/">explained</a> Bitter Winter magazine.
Unfortunately, the CCP’s war on religion has extended beyond classrooms, reaching into churches, seminaries, and Christians’ homes.
<ul>
<li>In April 2020, one of the CCP’s cadres ordered impoverished Christians to <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2020/07/china-remove-pictures-of-jesus-or-lose-government-aid/">remove pictures of Jesus</a>, or banners with scriptural quotations, from their living rooms or lose the state pension that keeps them alive. That follows a 2017 campaign to force Chinese Christians to replace crosses, images of Jesus, or Bible verses with pictures of President Xi Jinping. Christians also had the option of replacing an image of the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%209%3A6&amp;version=KJV">Prince of Peace</a> with a picture of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-cant-stop-quoting-historys-greatest-murderer-but-the-media-are-silent-about-it">greatest mass murderer in history</a>, former dictator Mao Tse-tung. In March 2017, a social media account reported that villagers in Jiangxi province “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/14/jesus-wont-save-you-president-xi-jinping-will-chinese-christians-told/">willingly</a>” took down 624 faith-oriented images and put up 453 pictures of Xi. But villagers confirmed that government officials used force — including threatening the loss of government benefits — to effect the change.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“Help turn those who believe in religions into believing in the Party” <a href="https://t.co/dKXnmX1KK8">pic.twitter.com/dKXnmX1KK8</a>
&mdash; Yaqiu Wang 王亚秋 (@Yaqiu) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yaqiu/status/929934729209634817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<ul>
<li>In June 2019, Communist officials ordered a state-sanctioned Protestant church in Henan province to <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2019/09/china-replaces-ten-commandments-with-socialist-propaganda-report/">replace the Ten Commandments with socialist propaganda</a>. “You have to do whatever the Party tells you to do. If you contradict, your church will be shut down immediately,” a CCP official reportedly told the congregation. One of the newly displayed quotations from Xi Jinping states that “<a href="https://bitterwinter.org/Vocabulary/core-socialist-values/">core socialist values</a>” will “immerse various religions of China.” Imagine having to replace the Ten Commandments with a statement that Communism will drown your faith.</li>
<li>The previous November, officials with the United Front Work Department required another Protestant church to <a href="https://bitterwinter.org/moses-delivers-only-nine-commandments/">erase the first commandment</a> of the Decalogue, which forbids having other gods. “This must be removed,” one of the 30 members of the inspection team that showed up at the church said, pointing at the words <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2031:18&amp;version=KJV">etched in stone by God’s finger</a>.</li>
<li>Those who do not comply with the government’s tiniest edict face incarceration. On May 21, Communists <a href="https://www.ucanews.com/news/fears-rising-over-chinas-looming-re-education-of-christians/92666">arrested</a> Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu of Xinxiang, seven priests, and an undisclosed number of seminarians. Their crime? Using an abandoned factory as a makeshift seminary without the government’s permission.</li>
</ul>
The “Sinicization” of Christianity is impossible, because <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2019/12/how-socialism-causes-atheism/">socialism is incompatible with Christianity</a>. Marxism and the Bible envision different kingdoms, led by different rulers, established in different spiritual spheres, and operating according to radically different morality. Christianity, which teaches the <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2019/10/belief-in-genesis-127-is-incompatible-with-human-dignity-court/">inherent dignity</a> of every human life thanks to its creation in the image of God, can never reduce anyone to <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2009/10/a-reason-for-the-left-to-hate-mlk/">a mere cog</a> within the wheels of the State. And no religion whose Golden Rule proscribes the love of every soul could embrace the hatred that lies at the heart of socialism.
“Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions. Militant atheism is not merely incidental or marginal to communist policy; it is not a side effect, but the central pivot,” <a href="https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/solzhenitsyn-acceptance-speech/">said</a> Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. “To achieve its diabolic ends, communism needs to control a population devoid of religious and national feeling, and this entails a destruction of faith and nationhood.”
In the Communist view, efforts to bastardize Christianity, to turn churches into exponents and theorists of socialism, and to get the church to quell all internal dissent and disobedience is only the first step to the compete eradication of Christianity, and every religion. The Left is right that <a href="https://therightswriter.com/2014/10/the-wrong-side-of-history-2-0/">Communism is in an all-or-nothing war with the Author of faith</a>; it is wrong about how it will end. In the battles between now and that conflict’s final consummation, we should take to heart the words of Solzhenitsyn to hold fast to truth, because “one word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.” We should do so all the more at Christmastime, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-14&amp;version=KJV">when</a> “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

China Just Intensified Their War On Christians

Chinese Communist Party

Christmas

Xi Jinping

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is facing backlash after taking Nigeria off of a list of countries that endorse or allow religious violence as Christian groups point to the high level of persecution in the African nation. 
“State Department officials gave no reason for the move other than saying Blinken, upon the advice of various department sections, decided Nigeria didn’t meet the legal threshold to be named as ‘country of particular concern’ in an annual religious freedom list released by the secretary of State,” Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/23/christian-groups-blinken-nigeria-religious-violence-list-523258">reported</a>. 
The move was made just before Blinken made a diplomatic trip to the country. 
“It’s a victory for the terrorists — it’s a defeat for anyone concerned with human rights and religious freedom,” former Republican Congressman Frank Wolf said. 
Nigeria has been plagued by religious violence this year, with the number of Christians killed in July of this year already matching the total from last year, according to some <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nigerian-pastor-says-government-fully-supports-killings-of-christians-report">reports</a>. Many Christian aid organizations also rank Nigeria as a country with a lot of religious persecution, including Open Doors, which puts the African nation just inside the top 10 of worst persecuting countries in the world. 
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was “appalled” at the State Department&#8217;s decision, calling the move “unexplainable.”
“[USCIRF] is especially displeased with the removal of Nigeria from its CPC designation, where it was rightfully placed last year, as well as the omission of India, Syria, and Vietnam. We urge the State Department to reconsider its designations based on facts presented in its own reporting,” Chair Nadine Maenza <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-appalled-administrations-removal-nigeria-list-violators">said</a>.
Outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in December 2020, and a May <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nigerian-pastor-says-government-fully-supports-killings-of-christians-report">report</a> from the State Department seemed to confirm that designation. 
Sam Brownback, who was the special ambassador for religious freedom under the Trump administration, said the decision was the “revenge of the bureaucracy” while noting that religion definitely played a role in the violence in Nigeria.  
One former State Department official told Politico that the move constituted “diplomatic malpractice.”
“You just gave leverage away. It was clearly tied to Blinken’s visit. The Nigerians clearly cared about it. Did we get anything out of it?” the former official asked. 
Some officials pushed back, arguing that Blinken’s visit to Nigeria and its delisting were not related. The removal instead had to do with the timing of the release of the list, according to one official. 
As Politico noted, however, deadlines are not always so strictly followed and Blinken had called out religious persecution in Nigeria earlier this year. 
“In Nigeria, courts continue to convict people of blasphemy, sentencing them to long-term imprisonment or even death,” he said. “Yet the government has still not brought anyone to justice for the military’s massacre of hundreds of Shia Muslims in 2015.”
Some Christians on the ground in Nigeria say that their government doesn&#8217;t care about them. Back in September, after the killing of more than 30 Christians by Islamic Fulani herdsmen, one local pastor said that the government was actually in favor of the persecution. 
“We have never seen an evil government in this country like the one of today. The government is fully in support of the bloodshed in Nigeria. We are being killed just because we are not Muslims,” Rev. Jacob Kwashi said.
He added: “These evil Fulani jihadists are enjoying the backing of the government to go about killing people, destroying their houses and farmlands, yet when we try to defend ourselves, the government will go about arresting our people. What kind of justice is this?”

Berlin Hosts 2nd Libya Conference

‘Victory For The Terrorists’: Blinken Faces Backlash After Taking Nigeria Off Of Religious Violence List

Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled to Canada to escape religious persecution in Egypt, only to find the same irrational hatred lashing out at them in the West. On July 19, an arsonist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-surveillance-footage-captures-woman-igniting-coptic-orthodox-church-in-canada-its-definitely-hate">burned</a> down <a href="https://www.stgeorge.ca/">St. George Coptic Church</a> in Surrey, British Columbia.
“Many of the members of our community immigrated here in search of safety from political persecution in our home countries, so it’s difficult to wrap our heads around the idea of religious persecution in Canada,” parishioner Steve Faltas <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-canadian-churchesburn-in-suspicious-fires-11627044714">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a very difficult pill to swallow, to even think this is a hate crime based on our religious beliefs.”
The successful fire came just five days after video surveillance footage captured a woman attempting to set the church ablaze. Canada’s Coptic population has “many questions about what the authorities did to protect our church, especially considering the attempt on the same church this past Wednesday,” <a href="https://www.stgeorge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CopticOrthodoxChurchDestroyed_in_Surrey_BC.pdf">said</a> Bishop Mina, who oversees the Coptic churches of western Canada.
The Copts, for whom persecution was a way of life in Egypt, are not the only ones whom modern-day Canada reminds of their lives under profoundly anti-Christian regimes. On July 4, someone <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/church-of-vietnamese-refugees-torched-in-latest-apparent-anti-christian-arson-in-canada">set fire</a> to the Calgary Vietnamese Alliance Church, an evangelical church comprised of Southeast Asian refugees, many of whom fled Communism.
“We escaped from Vietnam to come here to get more freedom, to live and we think it was a good country — and now it happened to our church,” said Pastor Thai Nguyen. “Maybe it is not safe to be here in Canada compared to Vietnam.”
The fires are the latest in a string of at least <a href="https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2021/july/number-of-canadian-christian-churches-vandalized-set-on-fire-rises-as-terror-campaign-continues">45 cases</a> of church vandalism sweeping Canada. <a href="https://aleteia.org/2021/07/09/more-churches-in-canada-and-one-in-la-burn/">Ten</a> churches have been torched since June 21. In a familiar twist, the fires erupted as part of a media-fueled outrage after digging up atrocities from the long-dead past.
For more than a century, the government sent indigenous children belonging to native tribes (now dubbed “First Nations”) to boarding schools. These schools, which were often run by the Roman Catholic Church, were supposed to teach them English and help assimilate them into Canadian culture. But the poorly supplied dorms were rife with physical and sexual abuse, and an estimated <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/07/12/us-media-shamefully-justified-a-string-of-canadian-church-burnings/">4,100</a> children died on their watch, often of disease. In May, ground radar found soil disturbances that could be the graves of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/canada-lowers-flags-after-bodies-of-children-discovered-at-residential-school">215</a> indigenous children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. In June, another <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cowessess-marieval-indian-residential-school-news-1.6078375">751</a> bodies were discovered on the grounds of Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.
These are not new or unknown deaths: They are long-forgotten graveyards. The Canadian government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission <a href="https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf">noted</a> that school administrators had buried children who died of disease in haste, “often in poorly marked graves.” When the schools shut down, the makeshift wooden grave markers decayed. What officials have uncovered is a cemetery, not a “mass grave.” One tribal chief said or Marieval, “This is not a mass gravesite. These are unmarked graves.” Yet <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/world/canada/kamloops-mass-grave-residential-schools.html">The New York Times</a> (“the newspaper of record”) and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/31/americas/canadians-mourn-mass-grave-childrens-remains/index.html">CNN</a> (“the most trusted name in news”) both describe such areas as a “mass grave.” The reality is terrible enough without embellishment.
Instantly, vandals began targeting Catholic and Anglican churches, sometimes scrawling “215” or “751” on the buildings. But soon, any Christian would do. Obviously, Coptic immigrants never had anything to do with the indigenous school system. Neither did the Vietnamese, or recently formed Pentecostal or non-denominational congregations that have experienced the wrath of modern-day leftists bound to exact revenge for a sin these parishes never committed.
To their credit, tribal leaders have condemned the violence. &#8220;To burn things down is not our way,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/burning-churches-unmarked-graves-1.6087602">said</a> Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. &#8220;Our way is to build relationships and come together.&#8221;
These church burnings are not the explosive rage of the descendants of those harmed; they express the Canadian intelligentsia’s hatred of Christianity. Hearing of these acts of arson, the head of the B.C. [British Columbia] Civil Liberties Association tweeted, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/burn-it-all-down-civil-rights-official-reacts-to-burning-of-churches-in-canada">Burn it all down</a>.” Another attorney <a href="https://twitter.com/kwetoday/status/1411641001505177601">tweeted</a>, “I would help defend anyone charged with arson if they actually did burn things.”
Despite the unhinged hatred towards Christian houses of worship taking place in our closest neighboring country, the U.S. media have said virtually nothing about it.
Fox News is an exception, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/churches-burned-to-the-ground-in-canada-in-anti-church-hate-crime-wave">having</a> run a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/canada-church-fires-first-nation-residential-schools-graves">number</a> of stories on their website. The highest-rated host on cable news, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dark-days-church-arsonists-plunging-canada-toward-kristallnacht-levels-of-evil-journalist-warns">Tucker Carlson</a>, interviewed Canadian <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6262789520001#sp=show-clips">journalist Ezra Levant</a> about the string of anti-Christian vandalism and destruction on July 8. <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6263750316001/">Shannon Bream reported on the tragedies</a> on the July 15 edition of “Fox News @ Night.”
Unfortunately, that stands in stark contrast to the left-of-center cable news outlets. A Google search appears to show <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=church+burning+canada+site%3Amsnbc.com&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F5%2F2021&amp;ei=eRn_YOGTHJi3tAaqsJzgDQ&amp;oq=church+burning+canada+site%3Amsnbc.com&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EANKBAhBGAFQgJwEWN-lBGDFqARoBHAAeACAAVaIAY8EkgEBN5gBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrAAQE&amp;sclient=gws-wiz&amp;ved=0ahUKEwihtNaTyIHyAhWYG80KHSoYB9wQ4dUDCA4&amp;uact=5">zero results</a> for the church arson story on MSNBC, but the network ran <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/america-s-catholic-bishops-are-trying-punish-biden-his-stance-n1272035">two</a> <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/catholic-bishops-take-provocative-shot-biden-s-direction-n1271884">articles</a> bemoaning the fact that U.S. Catholic bishops are considering telling pro-abortion Catholic politicians it is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+11%3A29-30&amp;version=NKJV">unwise</a> to receive Holy Communion while facilitating the mortal sin of abortion. Rachel Maddow also <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-7-9-21-n1273681">interviewed</a> Texas State Rep. Nicole Collier (D-95) on July 9, who praised local churches for organizing against the state’s voter integrity law. Apparently, denying the vote to non-citizens and the dead is a greater atrocity than the mass persecution of Canada&#8217;s largest faith community.
Similarly, CNN’s transcripts <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=canada+churches+site%3Atranscripts.cnn.com&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;biw=1415&amp;bih=732&amp;source=lnt&amp;tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F5%2F2021%2Ccd_max%3A&amp;tbm=">don’t record</a> any mention of the church arsons on television. By contrast, CNN’s website has run <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/31/americas/canadians-mourn-mass-grave-childrens-remains/index.html">four</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/world/children-remains-discovered-canada-kamloops-school/index.html">stories</a> about the heartbreaking, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/americas/canada-unmarked-graves-discovered/index.html">long-ago</a>, residential school <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/01/americas/unmarked-graves-human-remains-british-columbia/index.html">abuse</a>, and Jake Tapper <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cg/date/2021-07-08/segment/01">covered</a> the abuse story on July 8. Thus far, CNN has <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=canada+churches+burned+OR+arson+site%3Acnn.com&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;biw=1415&amp;bih=733&amp;source=lnt&amp;tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F5%2F2021%2Ccd_max%3A&amp;tbm=">posted</a> only <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/29/americas/canada-church-fires-indigenous-land/index.html">one</a> story about the anti-Christian hate crimes — which may be worse than nothing. The second sentence describes the arsons as “the latest in a string of recent events affecting the country’s Indigenous communities,” rather than a string of arsons affecting the country’s Christian communities. CNN adds, “The churches were destroyed as Canada confronts its history of systemic abuse of [i]ndigenous communities with the recent discoveries of hundreds of human remains at the sites of two former boarding schools, which were operated by Catholic religious groups.”
That makes it sound like they kind of had it coming — a sentiment echoed by Canada’s left-wing prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The Liberal Party leader began his condemnation of the arsons by <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/canadian-pm-trudeau-denounces-church-burnings-vandalism.html">saying</a>, “I understand the anger that is out there against the federal government and institutions like the Catholic Church. It’s real, and it is fully understandable.” Please don’t burn their churches — but who could blame you for wanting to?
And, as in the United States, the powers that be seem to indicate that they will make no effort to stop the arson, as long as rioters burn the “right” targets. If innocent brown people suffering PTSD from decades of persecution overseas are retraumatized, so be it. The arc of social justice bends slowly … .
The victims maintain their hope through supernatural faith and inspiration from the Word of God. “While we are in shock and devastated by this loss, we hold firm to the belief that a church is far more than a building and we will come together as a community to rebuild,” <a href="https://www.stgeorge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210719St-GeorgeCopticOrthodoxChurchPressRelease.pdf">said</a> Fr. Bisenty Gerges, the parish priest. “We reflect on the words of the prophet Amos who prophesized the words of God saying, ‘In that day, I will restore David’s fallen shelter — I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be’” (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Amos%209%3A11&amp;version=KJV">Amos 9:11</a>).
The people of the West should also learn another verse from the Bible, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ezekiel%2018%3A20">Ezekiel 18:20</a>: “The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
Americans and Canadians must take that verse to heart before more of our cultural and moral capital burns. And the media must stop fanning the flames.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-surveillance-footage-captures-woman-igniting-coptic-orthodox-church-in-canada-its-definitely-hate">https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-surveillance-footage-captures-woman-igniting-coptic-orthodox-church-in-canada-its-definitely-hate</a>
Ben Johnson (<a href="https://twitter.com/therightswriter">@therightswriter</a>) is the Media Reporter at The Daily Wire. He previously worked at the Acton Institute, FrontPage Magazine, and LifeSiteNews. He’s the author of three books, including Party of Defeat (2008, with David Horowitz).
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Update: The original article said that officials had found the &#8220;remains&#8221; of 215 students at a residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. The officials, in fact, relied on ground radar to detect soil disturbances, and no excavations haven taken place. The number of soil disturbances was also reduced to 200.

Fire at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in British Columbia

OPINION: Canada’s Churches Are Burning. Where’s The Media?

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