World Watch List
North Korea number 1 in 2012 World Watch List of persecution
Only days after it was announced that Kim Jong-il, the reclusive leader of the world's most secretive nation, had died from a heart attack and would be replaced by his son Kim Jong-un, North Korea has again been highlighted as the most dangerous place on earth for Christians to live.
Nowhere in the world is Christian persecution so fierce. Believers have to hide their faith; parents can't even share their beliefs with their children until they are old enough to understand the dangers. Owning a Bible could get you killed, or sent to a harsh labour camp. Christians are routinely arrested, some murdered and others sentenced to labour camps. But despite the risks, the church is growing and there are an estimated 400,000 believers.
The remaining countries in the top ten list of where Christians are most persecuted are all Muslim-majority countries and include Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran and Pakistan. Here Muslim-background believers must live as ‘Secret Believers', hiding their faith from the government, their community and their own families, or risk imprisonment, beatings and sometimes even death.
In a number of countries persecution has increased significantly. In Sudan, where the creation of a new nation - South Sudan - left Christians of (North) Sudan isolated, President Omar al-Bashir has vowed to make the country more Islamic. In Nigeria, Christians have frequently been the targets of murderous attacks by Islamist group, Boko Haram, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of Christians. In Egypt, a bomb attack on the Church of the Two Saints in Alexandria on New Year's Day 2011 and the Maspero massacre in Cairo in October, where Coptics were peacefully protesting against church closures, resulted in the deaths of around 50 Christians.
To find out more about the 50 countries on the 2012 World Watch
List go to
www.opendoorsuk.org/worldwatch
Source: Open Doors
Please pray:
1. For a breakthrough this year in the situation for Christians in North Korea
2. That followers of Jesus in the Muslim world will live out their faith courageously and without fear
3. That Christian/Muslim relationships will improve, particularly in Nigeria and north African countries.
