Mr. David Turner:

We are grateful to the committee for this opportunity to present to the members this afternoon on our recent report on the persecution of Christians worldwide. I am the director of Church in Chains. We are an independent Irish charity that encourages prayer and action in support of persecuted Christians worldwide.

I will start by reminding everyone of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." We, in Ireland, have been privileged to enjoy total religious freedom for many years and rarely, if ever, do we think about it and, therefore, it will come as a great surprise to most Irish people, even practising Christians, to be told, as we are telling the committee today, that more 200 million Christians live at constant risk of persecution in 60 countries worldwide. This persecution of Christians does not often receive much media coverage and even when it does, the coverage may be framed to fit in with a prevailing narrative that is often put forward by governments. Today, we are here to highlight the other side of the story from the standpoint of the victims of persecution.

I will give the committee one example of what I mean. There is extensive violence in the middle belt of Nigeria currently. This is often referred to as a farmer-herder conflict, exacerbated by the effects of desertification and climate change. This description ignores facts, such as that one group, composed of Muslim Fulani militants, is doing the attacking.

The attacks are carried out on churches, pastors are targeted for assassination and the Muslim battle cry "Allahu Akbar" is often heard during attacks. My colleague, Pastor Lesado, will speak more on this.

While there is a wide body of evidence showing Christians as the most persecuted religious group in the world, Christians are not the only religious believers at risk of persecution. We in Church in Chains believe strongly in religious freedom for all people and while our work focuses predominantly on Christians, we acknowledge that other religious groups, and indeed those who profess atheism, also suffer persecution alongside Christians. Such groups include Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, the Bahá’i community in Iran, Muslims in many countries including Myanmar, China and India, and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria.

Our recently published fourth edition of the Church in Chains Global Guidelists 60 countries where Christians face persecution because of their faith. It divides the countries into three colour-coded categories. There are countries where there is severe persecution. In those countries many or all Christians face persecution. This can include imprisonment, torture, murder or violent mob attacks. Then there are countries that we classify as significant where some, but not all, Christians face arrest, attack or serious restrictions. That may be dependent on what church they belong to or where in the country they may live. There is another group that we classify as limited countries. In those countries some churches or individual Christians face restrictions on the free exercise of religion and belief or they face discrimination.

About half the countries in the guide have laws or policies in place to protect the majority religion, whether that be Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam, and prevent conversion to Christianity. Such laws and policies are, of course, in direct contravention of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which guarantees the right of an individual to change his or her religion or belief. My colleague Mr. H.M. will explain more about how Christian converts from Islam in Iran have, effectively, no religious rights at all. This afternoon, we want to highlight five countries where Christians face persecution. Each of those countries has an ambassador resident in Dublin.

I will begin by summarising the situation in China. For the first time, the persecution of Christians in China is categorised in the Global Guideas severe. This change is due to a marked increase in persecution as President Xi Jinping has gained more power and demanded that religion be sinicised. This is a term that means that all religions be made Chinese in character and brought under submission under the Chinese Communist Party, CCP. The CCP has long repressed religious freedom and all religions have suffered in recent years, particularly the Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners. The current situation is described by our China partner as the worst since the Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao in the 1960s. For Christians, under the sinicisation campaign, crosses have been torn down from churches; churches have been closed, whether they be government-approved or unregistered; church buildings have been demolished; church leaders have been put in prison; and members of unregistered churches have been harassed and discriminated against in employment, housing, education and business. The degree of persecution varies according to location and the attitude of local officials.

I will summarise the situation of Christians in Pakistan. We highlighted this last month when we met the ambassador of Pakistan. In Pakistan, religious minority groups such as Christians and Ahmadis are considered second-class citizens and often experience discrimination and social hostility. Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, which may be familiar to many in this room, cover offences such as defiling the Quran, for which there is a tariff of life imprisonment, or defaming the prophet Mohammed, for which the penalty is the death penalty. These laws are often misused to settle personal scores. Lower courts tend to side with the Muslim accusers regardless of evidence and many innocent people spend years enduring appalling conditions in prison awaiting trial or appeal. All attempts to reform the blasphemy laws in response to international concerns have failed due to the political influence held by Muslim fundamentalists.

Another serious issue for Christians throughout Pakistan is that every year many young Christian girls are kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam and marry their abductors, who are generally much older Muslims who are often already married with children. This appalling practice has increased in recent years and is also an issue for the Hindu community. It continues because perpetrators know that the likelihood of conviction is low, as police often help the suspects rather than investigate the abductions. In many cases, the women and girls are condemned to a life of sexual abuse by their so-called husbands.

My colleague, Mr. H.M., will now speak about the situation in Iran.