Christianophobia

A new study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.  The study by Rupert Shortt, a religious editor of The Times Literary Supplement, and a visiting fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, published by Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society, can be read in full at this link. 

The report says that the most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam.  Shortt says that  oppression of Christians  in Muslim countries is often ignored by the mainstream media because of a fear that  any criticism will be seen as “racist”

It is estimated that 200 million Christians, or 10% of Christians worldwide, are “socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.  “Exposing and combating the problem ought,  in my view,  to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood.”

“The blind spot displayed by governments and other influential players is causing them to squander a broader opportunity. Religious freedom is the canary  in the mine for human rights generally.”

State hostility towards Christianity is particularly rife in China, where more  Christians are imprisoned than in any other country in the world.  Ma Hucheng, an advisor to the Chinese government, claimed in an article last year that the US has backed the growth of the Protestant Church in  China as a vehicle for political dissidence.  “Western powers, with America at their head, deliberately export Christianity to  China and carry out all kinds of illegal evangelistic activities.  Their basic aim is to use Christianity to change the character of the regime…in China and overturn it.”

According to the report between one-half to two-thirds  of Christians in the Muslim dominated Middle East have either left or been murdered.  The  report lists hundreds of attacks on Christians focusing on Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Burma and China.

About half of all the pastors in America’s churches today do not want to tell  their congregations that there are forces in the world that persecute Christians  for their beliefs, because it’s a “downer,” according to the results of a  startling new poll by the Barna Research Associates.

Little, if any, news of Christian persecution in Muslim countries is ever reported by the main stream media.   Is there a prejudice in the media that holds that Christians are always the oppressor and never the oppressed?

Why hasn’t Obama exposed the plight of religious minorities in Muslim Countries.  He should speak up because we live in a day and age where the reality of religious persecution under Islam is so well documented—unlike in the days of former U.S. presidents who may be excused—that to continue ignoring it is tantamount to abetting it.  Just as history has recorded the great sufferings of non-Muslims under Islam, so too will it record the complacency or complicity of those who are in a great position to end the persecution, but refuse to do so.

While Christian churches are routinely destroyed and Christians murdered in Muslim countries, why is Obama spending millions of our tax dollars to rebuild, refurbish and preserve mosques and minarets in 27 different Islamic countries?  Is Obama also of the opinion that Christians need to be persecuted or Christianity wiped out?