Photo: Open Doors
The Diplomat. 02/11/2018
The Popular Parliamentary Group in Congress has presented a motion relating to the persecution for religious reasons suffered by Christians in the world.
According to the motion, presented in mid-October for debate in the Foreign Affairs Committee, more than 250 million Christians currently live in “countries where religious persecution exists, which makes Christianity the most persecuted of the world according to the Report of Religious Freedom in the World”.
In addition, the latest World List of Persecution 2018 prepared by the international organization Open Doors, reveals “a new spike among Christians killed for their faith”, with at least 3,066 crimes of faith against Christians and 793 attacks on churches throughout the world. “After the sharp decline between 2015 and 2016, the figure has grown in more than 2,000 victims killed over the last year”, warns the PP.
Pakistan is considered the most dangerous for Christians, with 15 murders in the last year, in addition to 110 detainees without trial, 700 kidnappings of Christians and 83 cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
There have also been 635 arrests of Christians without trial in India, a country that registered 24,000 of the 30,000 physical abuses produced around the world. The PP motion also shows concern about the situation in Libya, Nigeria, Nepal, Azerbaijan or Rwanda, among other countries.
As for Europe, the Open Doors report – which also included the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe – records 101 desecration attacks on churches and other Christian buildings, “placing our second country in this ranking , only behind France”.
Cooperation with other religious communities
For all this, the motion of the PP urges the Government to “raise awareness about the situation of Christians in the world” in the field of international diplomatic relations and establish diplomatic relations “that encourage free and peaceful worship, so that produce more attacks of any kind for religious reasons”.
Also, the PP asks the Government to launch “campaigns for the promotion of respect for religions, as well as for free worship, both in the public and private sphere”; that promotes in the international scene “the respect to the different religions” and that impels “the cooperation with other religious communities”.
