XPost: alt.home.repair, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   This past Palm Sunday was a dark day in Egypt. Suicide bombings at two Coptic   
   Christian churches, one in Alexandria and the other in Tanta left 45 people   
   dead and many more wounded. Although there has been an uptick in violence   
   against Christians in the    
   region, Egypt is hardly alone in a long list of countries -- many in the   
   Middle East -- that are violently hostile towards Christians.   
      
   A list generated by Open Doors USA, a nonprofit organization focused on   
   serving persecuted Christians, shows the Middle East accounts for a majority   
   of countries ranked in the top 10 for extreme persecution of Christians. In   
   order, the countries are as    
   follows:   
      
   1.       North Korea   
      
   2.      Somalia   
      
   3.      Afghanistan   
      
   4.      Pakistan   
      
   5.      Sudan   
      
   6.      Syria   
      
   7.      Iraq   
      
   8.      Iran   
      
   9.      Yemen   
      
   10.   Eritrea   
      
   Egypt ranks No. 21. According to the Christian advocacy group, one in 12   
   Christians today experiences high, very high or extreme persecution for their   
   faith. Nearly 215 million Christians face high persecution, with 100 million   
   of those living in Asia.   
      
   The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, an academic research center   
   that monitors worldwide demographic trends in Christianity, estimates that   
   between the years 2005 and 2015, 900,000 Christians were martyred — an   
   average of 90,000 Christians    
   each year.   
      
   From Nov. 1, 2015, to Oct. 31, 2016, Open Doors documented as many as 1,207   
   Christians who were killed around the globe for faith-related reasons during   
   the 2017 list’s reporting period. This is a conservative estimate since it   
   only includes documented    
   cases and does not include statistics from North Korea and large areas of Iraq   
   and Syria. Of the lists procured, these are the Middle Eastern or   
   Muslim-dominated countries where Christian deaths occurred during the same   
   time period:   
      
   1.       Pakistan: 76   
      
   2.      Syria: 24   
      
   3.      Somalia: 12   
      
   4.      Egypt: 12   
      
   5.      Afghanistan: 10   
      
   6.      Yemen: 4   
      
   7.      Libya: 2   
      
   8.      Iraq: 1   
      
   Open Doors also documented a total of 1,329 churches attacked worldwide for   
   faith-related reasons. These are the Middle Eastern or Muslim-dominated   
   countries where those attacks happened between Nov. 1, 2015, and Oct. 31, 2016:   
      
   1.       Pakistan: 600   
      
   2.      Iran: 11   
      
   3.      Iraq: 8   
      
   4.      Syria: 7   
      
   5.      Yemen: 3   
      
   6.      Libya: 3   
      
   7.      Palestinian territories: 2   
      
   The underlying cause for persecution is Islamic extremism, according to Open   
   Doors. The Christian population in Iraq alone has plummeted from 1.5 million   
   in 2003 to current estimates of 275,000. In a few years that number could be   
   zero, activists say.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)