Easter 2017, Christians ‘Most Persecuted Group in the World’
by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
BreitBart.com
16 Apr 2017
In many parts of the world, Christians gathering to celebrate Christ’s resurrection do so with the knowledge that any day their faith could cost them their lives as it has for thousands of their brothers and sisters.
On Palm Sunday, twin bombings by jihadists at two Egyptian churches killed at least 45 worshippers and wounded more than 100 others in the latest of a long string of deadly attacks targeting Christians throughout the world.
The attacks were directed specifically to Christian in their houses of worship to avoid any ambiguity regarding the intent. As has been noted, this was “an attack on Christians simply because they are Christians.”
On Saturday, the Pakistan military said it has thwarted a “major terrorist attack” against Christians planned for Easter Sunday after a successful overnight raid just hours after Christians celebrated Good Friday services.
On Easter Sunday 2016, an Islamist militant took the lives of more than 70 people and injured over 320 more after detonating his suicide vest in a park in Lahore that was full of Christian families celebrating the feast. Among the victims are more than 30 small children, who at the time of the blast were playing sports and outdoor games in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park.
During the last calendar year, some 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith across the globe, making Christians by far the most persecuted group in the world, according to a study from the Turin-based Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR).
The director of CESNUR, Dr. Massimo Introvigne, told Breitbart News that whereas atheistic communist regimes were the greatest persecutors of Christians in the last century, “Islamic ultra-fundamentalism” has taken its place as the number-one agent of persecution.
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