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The Greatest Global Threats to Religious Freedom, Refugees Similar

CBN

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A highly anticipated report from Aid to Church in Need (ACN), an organization that provides relief to persecuted Christians around the world, reveals that religious freedom is on decline.

The study found that the worst persecution is in areas where Islamic extremism is high, like Iraq and Syria.

"In parts of the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, this hyper-extremism is eliminating all forms of religious diversity and is threatening to do so in parts of Africa and the Asian Sub-continent," the report said. "The intention is to replace pluralism with a religious mono-culture."

According to the report Islamic extremism does more than threaten cultural diversity, it has also sparked a global refugee crisis.

"Islamist extremism and hyper-extremism, observed in countries including Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria has been a key driver in the sudden explosion of refugees which . . . or 2015 went up by 5.8 million to a new high of 65.3 million."

However, the report stresses that radical Islam is not the only enemy of religious freedom. Countries with strict governments like China and North Korea are also guilty of targeting and attacking Christians.

China has launched a rigorous crackdown on Christianity, demolishing some 2,000 crosses from church buildings in recent years. Meanwhile, Christians in North Korea face "long imprisonment without trial, rape, and murder."

The ACN is working hard to combat these attacks against religious freedom. Just this year the organization has spent some $172 million in global relief efforts.

 

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