165,000 believers worldwide face martyrdom this year

Since the crucifixion of Jesus more than 43 million Christians have been killed for their faith. This estimate is included in a document published by the German news agency IDEA in cooperation with the evangelical publishing house, Schulte & Gerth. Religious statistician David B. Barrett says about 165,000 Christians will die for their faith this year.

German missiologist Thomas Schirrmacher says no other religious community has been persecuted as severely as Christians. After the collapse of most communist regimes in the early 1990s the number of martyrs dropped temporarily, but they're on the rise again with the expansion of Islamic and Hindu extremism as well as the appearance of new dictatorships in Africa.

(IDEA Evangelical News Agency)

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