Christians have been increasingly branded “unwanted aliens” in countries where religio- nationalism is to blame for increasing oppression, violent incidents and the weaponization of legislation against minorities. • In India, an increase in states adopting “anti- conversion” laws was linked to a rise in attacks on Christians — with reports of extremists burning Christmas decorations, and Christians being prevented from burying their dead or even being forced to exhume the bodies of loved ones. • In Pakistan, increasingly influential Islamist groups framed minorities as a demographic threat, resulting in endemic abuse of Christian minorities, notably girls and young women forced to convert and marry. Christians from coast to coast across Sub-Saharan Africa are at risk amid the worst hyper-extremist attacks since the height of the Daesh (ISIS) violence in the Middle East. • Six of the top 10 countries in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index were in Africa (see pg. 8), with the threat having spread from Africa’s east coast to its western shores. 2 • In Mozambique, Islamist militants openly declared their intent to establish a caliphate with reports of more than 2 ,000 Christians killed in Cabo Delgado since 2017 — beheadings, kidnapping of children as well as churches and homes torched. • In Burkina Faso, amid reports that at least 40 percent of the country is controlled by Islamists, some Christians have been forced to follow Islamist customs including dress code, while others were summarily executed. Millions of Christians are part of a mass exodus of those displaced in conflict zones, some of it religiously motivated. This has spread, turning entire swathes of countries in Africa and Asia into danger zones. • In Nigeria, at least 1 million Christians were among the more than 3.5 million internally displaced as
A garden is tended on the grounds of this ruined church in Vietnam.
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