Worldwide war on Christians: 200 million persecuted in 50 countries

LONDON -- An MI6 report reveals for the first time that an estimated 200 million Christians in 60 countries are now facing persecution orchestrated, in part, by al-Qaida.

**

Publishing Date: 01.06.07 08:01
By Gordon Thomas

The report has been sent to the pope and church leaders. It is the first time the secret intelligence service has shared its information with religious leaders.

"We do so because we believe the situation is extremely serious," said an MI6 source.

The report is based on details from MI6 agents stationed in those countries. North Korea is identified as the world's worst country. Over 50,000 Christians are currently incarcerated in work camps because they refuse to submit to the extreme views rigorously enforced by the country's dictator, Kim Jong-il. An estimated 40,000 Christians are imprisoned in China for their beliefs.

The MI6 analysis calculates there are some 70 million "active Christians" in the People's Republic, all living in a climate of fear because of their beliefs. "Many try and escape by a route that is the equivalent of the biblical Exodus," says the report. The route has a long and colorful history.

It was originally created by the CIA and MI6 at the end of the Korean War to smuggle to safety its own agents and high-value informers from inside China. Today Christian escapees are moved from one safe house to another through China's towns and villages to the borders of Cambodia and Laos. The MI6 report quotes one guide as saying: "I do this for my faith." But the report reveals it is across the Muslim world, in countries where Islamism is at its most virulent, that the persecution is spreading fastest. In Nigeria, Christians describe "a creeping strangulation" of their faith. In Pakistan, Christians reveal how they are discriminated against at work, in politics and for their beliefs. Last year an al-Qaida-inspired mob attacked St. Mary's Church at Sakhur, killing worshippers at prayer. In all 70 Christians have died in the last 12 months. In the Sudan, many hundreds of Christians have been massacred while the Islamist government does little to protect them. It is the same grim picture of religious persecution in Ethiopia and northern Uganda.

MI6 has taken the unusual step of sending Pope Benedict XIV a copy of their report. It contains statistics which show that Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, had a Christian population of 84 percent in 1948. Today the figure has dropped to 12 percent.

A few weeks ago in Turkey, three Christians were butchered by extremists for publicly professing their faith. The report lists Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti from where Christians have fled in the face of sustained persecution. "In Iraq the situation is grave," states the report. "Christians do not have their own militia to protect them. Both the Shiite and Sunni factions accuse them of collaborating with the American 'crusaders.' Among the hundreds of kidnappings in the past year have been a growing number of Iraqi Christians."

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered "we must stop Christianity in this country."

As Communism withers on the vine in the former Soviet Union in the Muslim republics, there is a growing demand that the few remaining Christians in the area should be driven out. Though the end of the Soviet Union restored the Orthodox Church in Russia, in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan al-Qaida has mobilized its priests to denounce "Western Christianity."

Gordon Thomas, a regular G2B contributor, is the author of "Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad," the new edition of which was published in January 2007. He specializes in international intelligence matters.