Denmark: ‘Is Christian Persecution One of the World’s Biggest Problems?’

Raymond Ibrahim is considered in some circles to be a controversial figure, and he is also believed to be connected to the Islam-critical movement Counter-Jihad.

On 13 November, he visited Copenhagen, where he was to speak at the Trykkefrihedsselskabet about whether Christian persecution is one of the world’s biggest problems.

In this connection, the Challenge has spoken to Raymond Ibrahim on the same subject.

“Overall, the persecution of Christians worldwide is higher than ever before with 360 million believers facing high levels of discrimination and violence. In 2022, 5,621 Christians around the world were killed for faith-related reasons. Another 4,542 Christians were illegally detained or arrested, and 2,110 churches were attacked, many destroyed,” says Raymond Ibrahim.

The figures come from the World Watch List 2023, which was recently published by the international humanitarian organization Open Doors. Each year, the report provides an overview of the 50 nations in the world where Christians are most persecuted because of their faith.

If you look more closely at the numbers, the report shows that on average one in seven Christians (14%) is persecuted around the world. In Africa, this figure rises to one in five (20%), while in Asia it is as much as two in five – which means that a full 40% of all Christians are persecuted there. The report shows that Christians experience extreme levels of persecution in the 11 countries that top the list of the 50 nations. This includes assault, rape, imprisonment or murder, for example, due to attending religious services, often in underground churches.

In the most recently published list, North Korea is number one, followed by countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and India. According to Raymond Ibrahim, the majority of Christian persecution originates from Islamic countries or from countries where Islam dominates. “Most of the extreme persecution directed at Christians in 9 of the 11 nations where persecution peaks either comes from Islamic oppression or takes place in countries where Islam dominates.

This means that approximately 80% of the absolute worst persecution globally takes place in the name of Islam. I know it’s not politically correct to say it out loud, but this trend applies to the entire list, not just the top 11 countries. The persecution experienced by Christians in 39 out of the 50 nations also comes either from Islamic oppression or in countries where Islam is the majority.

These countries are governed by different forms of Islamic law. It can either be directly enforced by the government or society. But it can be family members who persecute their own relatives. Although North Korea is the country where the persecution is worst and is not Islamically justified, there is at least a hope for Christians that if Kim Jong-un’s regime collapses, the persecution of Christians will also immediately stop.

Christian persecution in Muslim countries, on the other hand, is part of Islam’s history, doctrines and socio-political structure. That’s why it’s harder to get rid of,” says Raymond Ibrahim. Raymond Ibrahim has been researching the relationship between Islam and Christianity for many years. Since he both reads and understands Arabic, he has scrutinized countless historical sources and follows the daily news flow also on Arabic media. Therefore, he also knows quite a bit about the daily concrete persecution that Christians suffer from:

“In Muslim countries, it does not have to be only official authorities or professional terrorists who persecute, it can also be individuals. It may be that a Muslim person has a disagreement with a Christian and then accuses him of blasphemy. Or a Muslim criminal commits a crime against a Christian because he knows that the authorities will take a more lenient view of the case than if he went after someone of Muslim faith.

A Christian can be accused of dating a Muslim or building a church. Often the authorities ban churches or restrict church attendance, which makes it almost impossible to build or maintain churches,” says Raymond Ibrahim. If what Raymond Ibrahim says is true, then it must also be natural to wonder why Western governments are apparently so silent when it comes to Christian persecution.

To that Raymond Ibrahim answers:

There are several reasons why the Western world does virtually nothing to stop the persecutions. Many Western seculars hate Christianity and believe that Christians who are persecuted are only getting what they deserve; others cannot imagine Christians being persecuted at all. For them, the only people being persecuted around the world are non-Christians.

These are the same people who do not believe that Christianity even exists outside the West. Others in the West know well that there are persecutions, but do not perceive them as truly Christian because they are Orthodox, Catholic or not part of the Western evangelical world. In addition, it is also not politically correct for modern liberals to support Christians, because it smacks of colonization and white man’s rule to be supportive of one’s own historic Christian roots.

Instead, the focus is on supporting minorities and people from other cultures and religions, such as a Muslim, Buddhist or any other exotic minority.

According to Raymond Ibrahim, Western governments should do much more to preserve Christian culture in the world.

“After all, most Western politicians are part of the same culture as the free-thinkers, who in these years harbor a greater and greater hatred for their own cultural and religious background. Hence the same blind spots. For some reason, America almost always supports Muslim governments, including the radical and extreme ones such as Saudi Arabia, where not a single church is allowed to exist. If Christianity with its message of forgiveness and charity is eradicated and perhaps completely disappears in many countries, if the development continues, what impact will it have on the general geopolitical situation, especially in the Middle East,” asks Raymond Ibrahim and offers his own take on an answer:

The world would simply fall back to its pre-Christian pagan times with a more brutal society. Might will make right. The culture and civilization we know, where all people have value, will fade away. Women will once again become the weaker sex. The world as we know it today will no longer exist. We take it for granted that all people have value, but it wasn’t like that before Christianity came into the world, and it won’t be like that if Christianity is eradicated.

Raymond Ibrahim also has an opinion on the new Danish Koran law, which makes it forbidden to burn the Koran:

“Condescension never works, but can actually worsen the situation, as Muslims see condescension as a sign of weakness, which can lead to even more aggressive behavior. As I said, I know it is politically incorrect to say so, but I have followed Christian persecution in Muslim countries for many years, and I unfortunately have to state that churches are not only burned down because of violations of the Koran, but as part of a general persecution of Christians, which just keeps getting worse and worse,” says Raymond Ibrahim.

Open Doors Denmark, which works among persecuted Christians, also finds that jihadism is the cause of a large part of the persecution. To the question of what the main reason for Christian persecution worldwide is, General Secretary of Open Doors in Denmark Jens Kristian Lund Jensen answers:

“There are several factors. In Africa south of the Sahara, it is Islamic jihadists such as Boko Haram who persecute and kill Christians. These are the same Islamist groups that persecute Christians in the Middle East. But in Southeast Asia, there are also other groups at stake. In India it is nationalist Hindus and in China there is massive surveillance by the communist state. But I can say without blinking for a second that jihadism accounts for a very large proportion of Christian persecutions – and especially in Africa, the tendency is unfortunately for this Islamic ideology to spread and threaten Christians more and more,” says Jens Kristian Lund Jensen.