Religious Persecution

Ian Johnson’s The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao provides a picture of the vibrant and varied religious faith in China, demonstrating that even after Mao Zedong’s campaign against religion and the devastation of the Cultural Revolution, religion has not only reemerged in some parts of China but is thriving.

While the Daesh genocide perpetrated against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities is an extreme example of religious persecution, it sheds light on the perils religious minorities have been encountering more generally in the Middle East.

Despite the fact that Syria and Iraq have been struggling with humanitarian crises, the reality of Christian minorities in both countries may be worlds apart.

It is imperative that we understand that a Middle East devoid of Christians and other religious minorities would be a tragedy—a tragedy not only for Christians and others who have lived in the Middle East for centuries, but a tragedy for an outward-looking and tolerant Islam.

Islamic State drove them out of their villages and abused them for their faith in Jesus, but some Christians are returning to places like Queregosh and replacing the crosses ISIS destroyed.

As word spread that 28 Coptic Christians were killed by terrorists, ambushed on their way to a church retreat in Upper Egypt, it was a little while before the realization hit: I was on a church retreat in the Delta.

Today the Hudson Institute and Providence co-hosted a panel discussion focused on the ongoing crisis in Syria and how America’s interests and moral considerations interact.

Amidst global convulsions, one affected group remains relatively powerless and largely ignored: Middle Eastern Christians.

No one who reads They Say We Are Infidels by World Magazine editor Mindy Belz should ever doubt Christians are victims of ISIS genocide.