A British report has concluded that 80 percent of all persecuted religious believers in the world are Christians.
The study, commissioned by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Boxing Day 2018, aimed to assess the level of global persecution of Christians in order to review current government policies.
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What the review - led by the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen - discovered, was a dire situation for Christians around the world, especially those in the Middle East and Africa.
Levels of persecution in those areas have been labelled as genocide after meeting the criteria adopted by the United Nations (UN).
"In 2016 various political bodies including the UK parliament, the European Parliament and the US House of Representatives, declared that ISIS atrocities against Christians and other religious minority groups such as Yazidis and Shi'a Muslims met the tests of genocide," Mounstephen wrote.
The report also referred to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5 percent of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.
"Christianity is at risk of disappearing, representing a massive setback for plurality in the region," Mounstephen continued.
Christian organisation Open Doors revealed in a 2019 report on anti-Christian oppression that "approximately 245 million Christians are at risk of high, very high or extreme levels of persecution".
The findings released this week are part of an interim report, as further analysis of the global situation was deemed necessary. The full results will be revealed by the end of June.
The report comes in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, which saw approximately 250 people die and more than 500 injured in a series of attacks on hotels and Christian churches.
Newshub.
