From Nigerian villages devastated by Fulani militia to Afghans fleeing the Taliban, religious oppression is a global crisis. International Christian Concern, a nonpartisan human rights organization, unveiled their 2022 Persecutor of the Year Awards report, shedding light on the atrocities men and women of faith face around the world.
Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, presented a 150-page report on the plight of persecuted Christians. The report documents world’s top 16 persecutors of Christians across the globe within the last year, breaking them down by country, entity, and individuals and naming one dubious “winner” in each of the three categories.
“This report isn’t a list of sad, small statistics happening somewhere in the world, far-removed from us,” King explained. “Many of these are mass human rights violations — with some approaching genocide. Religious freedom is an issue that affects people of all faith and is a key driver in political freedom. Our report documents actual, ongoing religious persecution that is consistently ignored by major media and barely touched by our comfortable churches in the United States. This report is a wakeup call to churches in the West and a challenge to know the truth and act on it.”
The Persecutor of the Year Awards are a culmination of analyzed data, victim interviews, and reviewed global trends on Christian persecution by 50 international ICC staff members and their massive network of contacts. The meeting was held at the International Religious Freedom Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington D.C.
Afghanistan Named Persecutor of the Year
In the country category, Afghanistan was awarded the dishonorable status of Persecutor of the Year. The war-torn country is home to an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Christians. With the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel in August 2021, the Taliban instituted Sharialaw that classifies Christians converts as a community of criminals that deserve the death sentence. The extreme Islamists began a door-to-door hunt of Christians.
