Persecution

World Watch List 2025

As we prepare to enter 2026, we encourage you to become aware of the massive persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world, and then do something. Anything. Pray. Call or email your leaders in Congress, your state leaders, your friends, fellow Christians, contact your local media, and organize.

Christians are in trouble around the world. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” – Matthew 5:10-12

Please review the World Watch List – Open Doors’ annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/

Here are some quick, alarming data points

  • 4,476 Christians were murdered for their faith last year
  • 1 in 7 Christians are persecuted worldwide
  • 1 in 5 Christians are persecuted in Africa
  • 2 in 5 Christians are persecuted in Asia
  • 7,679 Churches and Christian properties attacked

COUNTRY LIST – https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/

Most Christians are persecuted by Islamic Oppression, followed by Communist or dictatorial oppression, and others.

Here are the top oppressors in order

  • North Korea
  • Somalia
  • Libya
  • Eritrea
  • Yemen
  • Nigeria
  • Pakistan
  • Sudan
  • Iran
  • Afghanistan
  • Central African Republic
  • Mauritania
  • Myanmar
  • Mali
  • Syria
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Maldives
  • China
  • Algeria
  • Tunisia
  • Morocco
  • Burkina Faso
  • Turkey
  • Cuba
  • Niger
  • Ethiopia
  • Laos
  • Tajikistan
  • Qatar
  • Egypt
  • Brunei
  • Jordan
  • Oman
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Colombia
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Mozambique
  • Bangladesh
  • Vietnam
  • Bhutan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kuwait
  • Malaysia
  • Indonesia
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Russia
  • Sri Lanka
  • Western Sahara
  • Kosovo
  • Bahrain

Notice that most of these countries are “allies” or trade with the USA. We encourage you to reach out to Secretary Rubio and the State Department to put more pressure on these countries to protect Christians, or you won’t be doing business with the USA, nor will we protect you if you can’t protect us.

The Lord has told us we would be persecuted for his name, but we also have a duty to stand up for our fellow Christians here in the USA and around the world. This is the greatest level of persecution in the world that NO ONE is talking about. It’s time that changes before it’s too late. Even here in the USA, we are facing existential challenges.

According to Russell Contreras, in his article in Axios titled “The Great Unchurching of America” – https://www.axios.com/2025/12/26/great-unchurching-america-religiously-unaffiliated The U.S. is undergoing its fastest religious shift in modern history, marked by a rapid increase in the religiously unaffiliated and numerous church closures nationwide. Why it matters: The great unchurching of America comes as identity and reality are increasingly shaped by non-institutional spiritual sources — YouTube mystics, TikTok tarot, digital skeptics, folk saints, and AI-generated prayer bots.

Christianity is under fire. When you are facing the fire of persecution, what you do or don’t believe suddenly becomes very clear. Throughout human history, tyrants have tried and failed to stamp out the Christian faith. The same thing is true in our time on a global scale. Countless believers are choosing imprisonment or death rather than choosing to deny Christ.

If you were faced with the same choice, what would you choose? Stand up while you can. Even in the USA, we are under threat. You might want to think about that, because the global persecution of Christians is only going to intensify during the very challenging years that are ahead of us.

“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” – John 15:19-20

WEEKLY MEDITATION 27 OCTOBER – 2 NOVEMEBR 2025

Lord, we thank you for coming into our world as the light and the way. We ask that you help us understand your word through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and open our hearts and minds so that we may incorporate your word into our daily lives. We know we can do all things through you. Jesus, we thank you for your peace and comfort. Your wisdom, guidance, grace, and forgiveness. Your provision, blessings, and healing. You are our rock and salvation. Please help us to see your blessings in our lives and give us a spirit of gratitude to you and for you…in Jesus’ name, we pray.

– Amen

This week, we wanted to bring to your attention the horrific persecution of Christians worldwide. Whether it’s soft persecution like in the West (USA, Canada, Australia, UK, EU) or aggressive persecution in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

The Bible tells us in scripture, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” – Matthew 5:10-12, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake; endure to the end” – Matthew 5:10-12, or “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” – 2 Timothy 3:12, and more!

It is clear that we will be persecuted for our faith in the Lord. It is also clear that we are called to help those persecuted. Matthew 5:44, which instructs us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.

Here are a few high-level stats from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule

  • 18,000 Christian Churches burned since 2009
  • 50,000 Christians Martyred (Murdered) since 2009
  • 5 Million Christians Displaced Since 2009
  • 7,000 Christians Martyred (Murdered) in 2025 alone!

Christianity is the largest world religion, and its adherents live across the globe. Approximately 10% of the world’s Christians are members of minority groups that live in non-Christian-majority states. The contemporary persecution of Christians includes the official state persecution, mostly occurring in countries that are located in Africa and Asia because they have state religions (Communist/Socialist) or because their governments and societies practice religious favoritism. Such favoritism is frequently accompanied by religious discrimination and religious persecution.

According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom‘s 2020 report, Christians in Burma, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam are persecuted; these countries are labelled “countries of particular concern” by the United States Department of State, because of their governments’ engagement in, or toleration of, “severe violations of religious freedom”.[15]: 2  The same report recommends that Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, the Central African Republic, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sudan, and Turkey constitute the US State Department’s “special watchlist” of countries in which the government allows or engages in “severe violations of religious freedom”.[15]: 2 

Much of the persecution of Christians in recent times is perpetrated by non-state actors which are labelled “entities of particular concern” by the US State Department, including the Islamist groups Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Houthi movement in Yemen, the ISIS- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province in Pakistan, al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic State as well as the United Wa State Army and participants in the Kachin conflict in Myanmar.[15]: 2 

As we start our journey toward the end of 2025, we ask that you consider making a donation (we DO NOT get paid in any way for advocating this) or find some other way, even if it is simply sharing this post, to help our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted and martyred as you read this.

Here is a list of organizations that help and support persecuted Christians around the world. Again, we are NOT affiliated with these organizations, but they are the largest supporters of persecuted Christians worldwide. Please consider supporting one or more of these organizations. We, as the body of Christ, are called to support our brothers and sisters around the world.

God Bless You!

Also, please write your government representatives and encourage them to support Christians worldwide and stop the persecution of our faith! Bring awareness to this terrible challenge.

PERSECUTION ALERT!

Thousands of Christians around the world are being persecuted for Jesus’ holy name and for worshiping in our Christian faith. Just over the weekend, more were murdered in the name of Islam in Nigeria. We ask that you pray that Christians will be witnesses to God’s love in regions dominated by hatred and extremism. Especially, in the Middle East, China, and Africa.

They need our help, our prayers, and our love. We encourage you to visit the Voice of Martyrs and, if you can, support their efforts. https://www.persecution.com/

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they keep my word, they will also keep yours.” – John 15:19–20

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” – Matthew 5:10–12

The Real Story of Valentines Day

This week we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day when Americans focus on love and romance. But most of those celebrating don’t know that the man for whom this day is named was a Christian persecuted because of his Christian actions.

The following is adapted from the “Note to Parents and Educators” included in VALENTINE: God’s Courageous Evangelist, a book published by VOM as part of The Courageous Series for children that tells the true stories of heroes of the Christian faith such as St. Valentine.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on Feb. 14, but why?

Read more here!

 

The Middle East Needs Bibles

Deliver Bibles to the Middle East. This Easter you can help reach people for Christ in dangerous place. 

In the midst of all the turmoil and violence that’s happening across the Middle East, Cru® staff and partners are working tirelessly to bring people to a saving relationship with Jesus, and disciple these new believers in their faith. But they need Bibles.

When God’s Word — alive and active — is released into the Middle East, you can trust that He will use it to accomplish His will.

Please join our friends at Cru to help provide Bibles to the Middle East. Click here to learn more and contribute.

Genocide Against Christians

As a ministry who strives to raise the level of awareness and education of persecuted Christians around the world, we need your help.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines “genocide” as killing and certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Extensive and irrefutable evidence supports a finding that the so-called Islamic State’s mistreatment of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, as well as Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, meets this definition. This evidence includes:

  • assassinations of Church leaders
  • mass murders and deportations
  • torture
  • kidnapping for ransom
  • sexual enslavement and systematic rape of girls and women
  • forcible conversions to Islam
  • destruction of Christian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and artifacts

ISIS’s own public statements take “credit” for the murder of Christians precisely because they are Christian and express its intent to wholly eradicate Christian and other minority communities from its “Islamic State.” Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill noted in their historic joint statement that “whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated.”

The European Parliament, prominent members of both political parties in the United States, including presidential candidates on both sides, Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, groups such as Genocide Watch, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and American Christian leaders of a broad array of faith traditions, along with the Christian leaders of Iraq and Syria themselves, and many others, have called ISIS’s actions against Christians in Iraq and Syria genocide.

We humbly ask that you sign the petition organized by the Knights of Columbus and the Defense of Christians to help force the United States Department of State and Secretary of State John Kerry to designate the Islamic State’s (ISIS or ISIL) systematic killing of Christians and members of other religious minority groups in the Middle East as “genocide” and pray for persecuted Christians around the world.

Please click here to learn more and sign the petition. 

Humbly in Christ, we thank you.

Remember Our Persecuted Family This Christmas

Sponsor Christmas Care Packs and Village Outreach Kits through our brothers and sisters at Voice of the Martyrs.

Send a gift to persecuted Christians in one of the nations where VOM serves. Bless a child with a Christmas Care Pack full of items to use at school and home, including Christian literature such as a children’s Bible. Provide Christian workers with a Village Outreach Kit that includes tools to help them effectively reach others with the gospel. This year, packs will be distributed among the more than 60 nations where VOM works.

Please click here to learn more or sponsor a care pack.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit,inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting our persecuted family worldwide. VOM was founded in 1967 by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania for his faith in Christ. His wife, Sabina, was imprisoned for three years. In the 1960s, Richard, Sabina, and their son, Mihai, were ransomed out of Romania and came to the United States. Through their travels, the Wurmbrands spread the message of the atrocities that Christians face in restricted nations, while establishing a network of offices dedicated to assisting the persecuted church. The Voice of the Martyrs continues in this mission around the world today through the following main purposes:

PRAYER REQUEST ALERT: Egypt – Pray for Naglaa el-Emam, Detained for Contempt of Islam

Naglaa el-Emam, a well-known human rights lawyer and Christian convert from Islam, was detained on Feb. 24 by State Security on charges of “insulting Islam” in Egypt. Following her conversion to Christianity in 2010, she was fired from her job and disowned by her Muslim family. The outspoken activist, who has shared her faith publicly, has been repeatedly harassed by government officials and slandered by Muslim extremist groups.

Pray for the 200 Christians Abducted by Islamic State

As many as 200 Assyrian Christians, mostly women and children, were kidnapped in Syria on Feb. 24 in an overnight raid by Islamic State. Reports indicate that IS may have executed some Christians and destroyed several churches during an attack on villages near the town of Tel Tmar, close to the Kurdish held city of Hassaka.

It is feared that the men will be executed and the women and children abused, sold or used as human shields. Voice Of Martyrs contacts in Syria ask that we pray for the encouragement and protection of Christians in Syria so that they can be a living testimony in the midst of war.