• Mass migration of Christian communities, triggered by militant Islamist attacks, has destabilized and disenfranchised them, raising questions about the long-term survival of the Church in key regions.
Intensified targeting of Christians as enemies of the state and/or of the local community
• Authoritarian regimes, including those in China, Eritrea, India, and Iran, ramped up repressive measures against Christians, either in the name of religious nationalism or state secularism/communism. The restrictions included tougher sentencing for alleged insults against state ideology, confiscation of places of worship, and increased arrests of clergy and laity, as well as longer periods of detention. • Against a backdrop of growing concerns about anti-Church oppression in parts of Latin America, for the first time in Persecuted and Forgotten? ’s 18-year history, Nicaragua is included as a country spotlighted in the report because of a range of extreme oppressive measures targeting Christians, notably the mass detention and expulsion of clergy, including all members of the apostolic nunciature. • Standing out against this general trend is Vietnam, which was the only country in the report categorized as “slightly improved,” with steps taken to re-establish diplomatic ties between the state and the Vatican and reduced red tape regarding the registration of religious groups. State and non-state actors increasingly weaponized existing and new legislation criminalizing acts deemed disrespectful to the state religion as a means of oppressing Christians and other minority religious groups • In India, by May 2023, 855 people were reportedly detained under anti-conversion laws introduced in Uttar Pradesh in 2020. 6 In Pakistan, there was an upsurge in large-scale attacks on Christians, triggered by accusations of blasphemy, notably in Jaranwala in August 2023 and Sargodha in May 2024. In Iraq, Church leaders expressed fears that laws barring insults against religion would be used as a pretext to restrict Christian worship and practice.
Reports highlighted the threat to Christian children, especially girls
• Evidence suggested an increase in cases of Christian girls as young as 10 suffering abduction, sexual violence, forced marriage, and forced conversion. Emerging data pointing to a surge in cases of minority faith girls and young women being abducted was reported in Pakistan, and other research showed it was a recurring problem in Egypt. • However, reports from Saudi Arabia and Egypt showed the authorities had removed religious hate material against Christians and other religious minorities from school textbooks.
Children in Aleppo’s predominantly Christian Al-Jdeideh District, which suffered terrible damage during the Syrian Civil War.
8 Persecuted and Forgotten?
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