Christians Are Persecuted in Every Muslim-Majority Country

European Conservative : As Christians worldwide celebrate Christmas, millions are also suffering from severe pressures and persecution in majority-Muslim countries.

This includes post-Soviet states, countries governed by Sharia law, and officially secular nations such as Turkey.

According to a 2024 Human Rights Violations Report authored by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches, Christians are subject to increased hate crimes, hate speech, threats, discrimination, and dismissal from their jobs because of their religion. They also experience physical assaults, no official recognition of the Protestant church, and a lack of cemeteries for Christians. Foreign Christians are deported or banned entry by denying them residence visas. The Protestant community in Turkey is not allowed to open their own churches nor train their own spiritual leaders, forcing them to operate as ‘associations.’ 

Similar persecution is a global phenomenon across other majority-Muslim countries. In the case of Somalia, Christians face the most severe persecution, according to the human rights organization Open Doors. Identifying as a Christian is a matter of life and death. Al-Shabab, an Islamic terrorist group, currently controls large swathes of Somalia. This group enforces a strict form of Sharia and is committed to eradicating Christianity from the country. They have often murdered Somali Christians on the spot. The dangers have increased over the years, as the terrorists have focused on finding and eliminating Christian leaders. 

Almost all of Somalia’s Christians come from a Muslim background, and as converts, they face the greatest risks of persecution. Somali society is based around a strong clan identity, which is heavily intertwined with Islam. Family members and clan leaders view conversion to Christianity as a betrayal. As such, any Christian who is discovered is at an extreme risk of immediate violence. Open Doors notes:

Young female converts to Christianity remain extremely vulnerable, with many living in hiding. Commonly, a woman suspected of converting to Christianity will be humiliated in public, kept under strict house arrest, raped, abducted, forcibly married to a radical sheikh or killed. If already married, she will likely be divorced and have her children taken away to ensure that they are raised in an Islamic way. Christian women also suffer when their husbands are imprisoned or killed; many are taken advantage of by male relatives and the family often ends up impoverished.

Violent chaos is also a cover for persecution against Christians. The current civil war in Yemen, for instance, started in 2014 and eventually escalated when Iran-backed Houthi terrorists took control of the capital, Sanaa. This led to a full-blown conflict in early 2015 with a Saudi-led military intervention against them. Yemen is currently fragmented and controlled by several different groups, primarily the Houthis in the north and the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council in the south. Other groups, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and local tribal militias, maintain influence in various areas of the country.

Christians are not safe under the rule of any of these groups. Pressure on Christians is at a maximum. In recent years, Houthis have expanded their power, making more of the country increasingly dangerous for Christians, to the point that even secret house churches can no longer meet safely.

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