Christian Persecution

The most persecuted religion in the world is neither Islam nor Judaism, but Christianity. By persecution, I mean how Open Doors, a charity that advocates Christian freedom of worship, defines it, which is ‘any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ. This can include hostile attitudes, words and actions towards Christians’. So, what are the persecution stats?

According to the Cato Institute, in 2021, 360 million Christians lived in countries where persecution was “significant.” For practising their faith, around 5,600 Christians were murdered, over 6,000 were detained or imprisoned and over 4,000 were kidnapped. It is estimated that more than 5,000 churches and other religious buildings were destroyed.

The top ten nations where it is most dangerous to be a Christian are the following in ranked order:

1.     North Korea

2.     Afghanistan

3.     Somalia

4.     Sudan

5.     Pakistan

6.     Eritrea

7.     Libya

8.     Iraq

9.     Yemen

10.  Iran 

North Korea is an officially atheist country, whereas the others are Islamic. What unites them is the way these regimes combine their worldviews with a totalitarian system. But Islam and atheism are, of course, not necessarily totalitarian. There is a world of difference between Dame Sara Khan, the Muslim and human rights activist, and the atheist academic Graham Oppy on the one hand, and the atheist and Islamic extremists running the show from Pyongyang and Kabul.

We British can pride ourselves on our deserved reputation for religious tolerance. However, although we are not crushing Christians beneath steamrollers or beheading them, there is disquieting evidence that the persecution of Christians is going on in our sometimes green and pleasant land.

Take the case of Christian pastor, Dias Moodley, who was arrested for the alleged ‘crime’ of criticising Islam and consequently spent thirteen hours in a police cell. Moodley is what might be termed a street evangelist, who engages in dialogue with people on Bristol’s streets about Christianity’s moral and social tenets. He often debates with people who hold opposing views. Such you would think is the stuff of which British freedom of speech is made. However, as we all know, there are people among us and ‘governing’ us who cannot bear the free expression of views they dislike.

Last March, Moodley was preaching outside Bristol University. In response to a question posed by a Muslim man, Moodley pointed out the differences in moral standards between Christianity and Islam, and affirmed his belief that God created only two sexes and that sex is therefore binary. For daring to criticise Islam and transgenderism, Moodley was assaulted by some of his opponents who pushed him from the stepladder on which he was standing.

When the police turned up, despite being the victim of assault for simply expressing his opinions, it was Moodley who was arrested on suspicion of racially or religiously aggravated harassment without violence. On the instructions of the police, Bristol University’s staff disposed of Moodley’s placards.

The story, fortunately, turns out well in the end. The police dropped their investigation after Moodley received legal representation from ADF UK (the British branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom International). Moodley is now rightly pursuing a complaint against Avon and Somerset Police for wrongful arrest and the destruction of his property. I am sure we wish him complete success in that.

But let us not be too triumphant. Being arrested as an innocent person is traumatic and the attack on freedom of speech by the officious bobbies of Bristol should never have happened in the first place. Respectful expressions of criticism of another person’s religious and moral views is not tantamount to harassment. Moreover, no belief-system is beyond criticism. If any creed becomes an exception to this, we are all in danger of those who hold that creed dictating to the rest of us.

Moodley’s case is not the only one. Hatun Tash is a Christian convert from Islam, which is legal under British law. A person has the right to change his or her religion, or to have no religious beliefs. Tash is a brave woman because she regularly preaches about Islam at Speakers’ Corner in London. In June 2022, a man grabbed her copy of the Koran and ran away with it When the police arrived, it was Tash who was arrested, not the thief, and as she was led away, a group of Muslim men mocked and chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’. Now surely that is religious harassment. This is not the worst that has been done to Tash. She has been stabbed more than once at Speakers’ Corner, and a man was jailed recently for planning to murder her. Tash has won with the help of the Christian Legal Centre £10,000 in compensation from the police, but that cannot make up for the potentially deadly violence she has faced.

Need I go on? If so, what of the cases of Adam Smith-Connor and Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, both of whom have been arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics? Whereas charges against Vaughan-Spruce were dropped, Smith-Connor was convicted of his ‘thought-crime.’

What is it about Christians that makes it so easy to arrest them and not those who have ill-treated them? Is it their ethic of non-violence? Probably. It is easier to get handcuffs on someone who believes in turning the other cheek than someone screaming “death to all Jews”.

If, as British society secularises, Christians are going to continue to fall foul of the authorities simply for expressing their views and practising their faith through the ritual of silent prayer, then it is time for all Christians to join organisations such as the Free Speech Union, the AFD UK, and consider membership of political parties such as the Social Democrats who have never compromised on free speech. For who is going to stick up for them? Woke Welby and his episcopal crew of flaccid deists? There is a battle for British values raging around us and Christians, who are in the thick of it, need to fight it (legally, of course!) for their own sakes and that of everyone else. Those of all faiths and none who value freedom of speech need to get stuck in too.

Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020).

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