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Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack
On October 29, 2005, three Indonesian schoolgirls were beheaded as they walked to school -- targeted because they were Christian. Like them, many Christians around the world suffer violence or discrimination for their faith. In fact, more Christians than people of any other faith group now live under threat. Why is this religious persecution so widely ignored?
In Christianophobia Rupert Shortt investigates the shocking treatment of Christians on several continents and exposes the extent of official collusion. Christian believers generally don't become radicalized but tend to resist nonviolently and keep a low profile, which has enabled politicians and the media to play down a problem of huge dimensions. The book is replete with relevant historical background to place events within their appropriate political and social context.
Shortt demonstrates how freedom of belief is the canary in the mine for freedom in general. Published at a time when the fundamental importance of faith on the world stage is being recognized more than ever, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in people's right to religious freedom, no matter where, or among whom, they live.
In Christianophobia Rupert Shortt investigates the shocking treatment of Christians on several continents and exposes the extent of official collusion. Christian believers generally don't become radicalized but tend to resist nonviolently and keep a low profile, which has enabled politicians and the media to play down a problem of huge dimensions. The book is replete with relevant historical background to place events within their appropriate political and social context.
Shortt demonstrates how freedom of belief is the canary in the mine for freedom in general. Published at a time when the fundamental importance of faith on the world stage is being recognized more than ever, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in people's right to religious freedom, no matter where, or among whom, they live.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2012
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January 31, 2015
I've read a lot about persecutions against the early church--stories of Christ-followers required to either renounce their faith, or be fed to wild animals or set ablaze to light Nero's dinner parties. Such stories have both inspired and shamed me. I am a follower of Jesus in the United States in the twenty-first century, where we tend to define persecution as the removal of a Nativity scene at Christmas or the release of yet another rant from Richard Dawkins. I can't even imagine having to make the choice that those early Christians had to make. Further, it's hard to comprehend that the persecution of Christians still goes on in the world today.
Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack is a country-by-country report of senseless brutalities against Christians in the twenty-first century. It is a compelling journey documenting the accounts of those who have been maimed, kidnapped, enslaved, tortured, and murdered for nothing more than worshiping their God--my God.
Strangely, the most powerful thing I take from this book is irony: as I read it, I am lounging in my shady back yard, sipping a cool drink and watching my wiener dogs chase squirrels. I shake my head in the disgust and grief until I put down the book and move inside to avoid yet another mosquito bite.
The book makes me wonder why, in a world that demands tolerance of every other people group, Christians are still fair game. At the same time, it causes me to wrestle with these realities in light of the words of our Savior:
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 5:11-12.
Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack is a country-by-country report of senseless brutalities against Christians in the twenty-first century. It is a compelling journey documenting the accounts of those who have been maimed, kidnapped, enslaved, tortured, and murdered for nothing more than worshiping their God--my God.
Strangely, the most powerful thing I take from this book is irony: as I read it, I am lounging in my shady back yard, sipping a cool drink and watching my wiener dogs chase squirrels. I shake my head in the disgust and grief until I put down the book and move inside to avoid yet another mosquito bite.
The book makes me wonder why, in a world that demands tolerance of every other people group, Christians are still fair game. At the same time, it causes me to wrestle with these realities in light of the words of our Savior:
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 5:11-12.
October 5, 2013
Rupert Shortt is religion editor of Times Literary Supplement, he investigates shocking treatment of Christians on several continents and exposes the extent of official collision. This book is important reading for anyone interested in religious freedom. It is dedicated to those who suffer for their beliefs.
His argument is shaped by two sorts of awareness. Anti Christian prejudice and violence in China, India, Vietnam, North Korea, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cuba, and Israel has nothing to do with militant Islam.
The second awareness is that the number of grievances felt by Muslims is reasonable.
Country by country Rupert documents incidents of unfair treatments on both sides. This is far more complex than you might think, and this finely crafted book is an excellent source of historic and present changes and issues in each country. Renouncement of faith, imprisonments and punishments are well documented country by country. The author hopes to establish that Christians are affected on a great scale in many places, and that the injustice is under-reported. Excellent notes and appendix make this a serious book worth having in you library.
March 23, 2015
Rupert Shortt is a Christian from the U.K. who has written 'Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack.' I received a hardcover copy of this book for free through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.
The book systematically explores the ways in which Christian identity can cause people to be killed, imprisoned arbitrarily, violently assaulted, harassed, and/or unduly deprived of property. The chapters are arranged by country.
The first country is Egypt. Violent clashes between Coptic Christians and their Muslim neighbors have included:
- After an argument between a Christian trader and a Muslim trader in 2000 in the village of El-Kosheh, 21 Christians and one Muslim were killed. The Muslim who was killed was hit with a stray bullet.
- In November 2003, a person who was a convert from Islam to Christianity died while in police custody.
- When a Coptic church in Alexandria was accused of "insulting Islam" in October 2005 after putting on a play about how to resist forcible conversion, a mob surrounded the church and four people were killed.
Many of the countries discussed in this book are Muslim-majority, but the point of the book isn't to single out Islam for blame. Shortt makes a note of Senegal, a Muslim-majority country where people of other faiths enjoy a high degree of religious freedom. It is not Shortt's belief that Islam is an inherently violent religion. He points out that in many of the countries discussed in this book, religion, politics, and nationalism become entangled in a very complicated way that makes it difficult to determine the exact extent to which religious differences in and of themselves factor into violence. Most of these countries have exceptionally poor human rights records in general.
The second country discussed in one very much in the headlines today, making this book especially relevant. Although the Christian population of Iraq had fallen to around 200,000 in 2013, Christians have lived in Iraq since the second century C.E. Since 2005, Christian clerics have repeatedly been subject to kidnappings, torture, and even beheadings by both Shia and Sunni Muslims.
In Iraq's Persian neighbor, Iran, it's increasingly difficult to be anything other than a Muslim. The only religion to be banned outright is the Baha'i faith, but people who convert to Christianity from Islam are often arrested. The story is much the same in Pakistan.
The book's fifth country is Turkey. Murders of Christians are not unheard of in Turkey. Three Christians were murdered at a publishing company in April 2007, and a Catholic bishop was murdered in June 2010. Turkey has laws against "insulting Turkishness" and Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Orthodox Christians, and Jews are often suspected of being "not Turkish enough," no matter how long their families have lived in Turkey. Some parties increasingly associate Turkish nationality with Islam and are suspicious of any citizens who aren't Muslims.
The first African country to appear in the book is Nigeria. Nigeria has been in the news much recently because of a large-scale kidnapping by Boko Haram, a group discussed in this book. The problem in Nigeria is that the northern part of the country is largely Muslim, while the southern part is largely Christian, and the country's most fertile land falls in the middle. On Christmas Day 2011, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a series of bombings outside churches that killed 35 people. Another problem in Nigeria is that unmarried women who aren't Muslims are considered "prostitutes" and are subject to forced marriages and forced conversions.
Next is Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. A particularly gruesome crime against Christians was the 2005 beheading of three teenage cousins as the girls walked to a church-run school. Buddhists and Ahmadi Muslims are also subject to persecution.
Finally we arrived at a country where persecution happens to Christians and Muslims alike at the hands of nationalists and followers of another faith: namely, Hinduism. Hindutva, a philosophy that associates Hindu identity with Indian nationalism, considers Christianity and Islam as suspicious because of their non-Indian origins. It's the same problem as in Turkey, just with a different religion.
Ditto Myanmar (which Shortt refers to as Burma). Myanmarese identity is being increasingly linked to Buddhism. Western people typically think of Buddhism as being a rather peaceful religion, but there are verses of Buddhist scripture that can be interpreted to encourage, or at least condone, violence. This shows us that any religion can be used for either peaceful or belligerent purposes.
Chapter 10 is about China, where imprisonment in work camps is common for Christians who are not part of the "official" state-sanctioned churches. Chapter 11 deals with Vietnam and also with what is probably the world's most dangerous place to be a Christian - North Korea. Although North Korea is thought to have as many as 500,000 underground Christians, professing faith in any religion can mean a death sentence in North Korea. In Vietnam, ethnic minorities such as the Hmong people are especially vulnerable to religious harassment and imprisonment.
Chapter 12 deals with "The Holy Land," i.e. Israel-Palestine, where Christians are sometimes subject to attacks by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Israel-Palestine is a very complex situation, and of course there is good behavior and bad behavior on the parts of Christians, Jews, and Muslims (and others) alike. Shortt has a good deal of sympathy - and rightly so - for Arab Christians whose free expression of their faith is curtailed as well as for innocent Palestinian Muslims who suffer for the sins of the minority who espouse violence. The author has less sympathy for evangelical Christians from the U.S. who insert themselves into Israeli-Palestinian geopolitics without a sophisticated understanding of the present reality.
The 13th chapter presents brief summaries of some other problematic areas of the world, including Belarus in Europe and, in the Americas, Cuba and Chile. Shortt notes, for example, that Cuba appears to be getting more restrictive since Raul Castro took over for his brother in 2008. Still, Shortt ends his book on a hopeful note.
Not only is this book an interesting supplement to what we regularly hear on the news regarding current events in Iraq, Nigeria, and elsewhere, it's also a good reminder of why freedom of religion (and freedom to choose no religion at all) is so important in modern multicultural societies. In the U.S., we often take our freedom of religion for granted. Yet we are no different from any other peoples of the world - able to fall victim to mob mentality, the ravings of charismatic sociopaths, and us-versus-them thinking like any other imperfect human beings in the world. All the more reason to cherish and protect our precious freedoms - and that includes standing up for other people, whether we share a religion with them or not, when their religious freedoms are threatened.
The book systematically explores the ways in which Christian identity can cause people to be killed, imprisoned arbitrarily, violently assaulted, harassed, and/or unduly deprived of property. The chapters are arranged by country.
The first country is Egypt. Violent clashes between Coptic Christians and their Muslim neighbors have included:
- After an argument between a Christian trader and a Muslim trader in 2000 in the village of El-Kosheh, 21 Christians and one Muslim were killed. The Muslim who was killed was hit with a stray bullet.
- In November 2003, a person who was a convert from Islam to Christianity died while in police custody.
- When a Coptic church in Alexandria was accused of "insulting Islam" in October 2005 after putting on a play about how to resist forcible conversion, a mob surrounded the church and four people were killed.
Many of the countries discussed in this book are Muslim-majority, but the point of the book isn't to single out Islam for blame. Shortt makes a note of Senegal, a Muslim-majority country where people of other faiths enjoy a high degree of religious freedom. It is not Shortt's belief that Islam is an inherently violent religion. He points out that in many of the countries discussed in this book, religion, politics, and nationalism become entangled in a very complicated way that makes it difficult to determine the exact extent to which religious differences in and of themselves factor into violence. Most of these countries have exceptionally poor human rights records in general.
The second country discussed in one very much in the headlines today, making this book especially relevant. Although the Christian population of Iraq had fallen to around 200,000 in 2013, Christians have lived in Iraq since the second century C.E. Since 2005, Christian clerics have repeatedly been subject to kidnappings, torture, and even beheadings by both Shia and Sunni Muslims.
In Iraq's Persian neighbor, Iran, it's increasingly difficult to be anything other than a Muslim. The only religion to be banned outright is the Baha'i faith, but people who convert to Christianity from Islam are often arrested. The story is much the same in Pakistan.
The book's fifth country is Turkey. Murders of Christians are not unheard of in Turkey. Three Christians were murdered at a publishing company in April 2007, and a Catholic bishop was murdered in June 2010. Turkey has laws against "insulting Turkishness" and Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Orthodox Christians, and Jews are often suspected of being "not Turkish enough," no matter how long their families have lived in Turkey. Some parties increasingly associate Turkish nationality with Islam and are suspicious of any citizens who aren't Muslims.
The first African country to appear in the book is Nigeria. Nigeria has been in the news much recently because of a large-scale kidnapping by Boko Haram, a group discussed in this book. The problem in Nigeria is that the northern part of the country is largely Muslim, while the southern part is largely Christian, and the country's most fertile land falls in the middle. On Christmas Day 2011, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a series of bombings outside churches that killed 35 people. Another problem in Nigeria is that unmarried women who aren't Muslims are considered "prostitutes" and are subject to forced marriages and forced conversions.
Next is Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. A particularly gruesome crime against Christians was the 2005 beheading of three teenage cousins as the girls walked to a church-run school. Buddhists and Ahmadi Muslims are also subject to persecution.
Finally we arrived at a country where persecution happens to Christians and Muslims alike at the hands of nationalists and followers of another faith: namely, Hinduism. Hindutva, a philosophy that associates Hindu identity with Indian nationalism, considers Christianity and Islam as suspicious because of their non-Indian origins. It's the same problem as in Turkey, just with a different religion.
Ditto Myanmar (which Shortt refers to as Burma). Myanmarese identity is being increasingly linked to Buddhism. Western people typically think of Buddhism as being a rather peaceful religion, but there are verses of Buddhist scripture that can be interpreted to encourage, or at least condone, violence. This shows us that any religion can be used for either peaceful or belligerent purposes.
Chapter 10 is about China, where imprisonment in work camps is common for Christians who are not part of the "official" state-sanctioned churches. Chapter 11 deals with Vietnam and also with what is probably the world's most dangerous place to be a Christian - North Korea. Although North Korea is thought to have as many as 500,000 underground Christians, professing faith in any religion can mean a death sentence in North Korea. In Vietnam, ethnic minorities such as the Hmong people are especially vulnerable to religious harassment and imprisonment.
Chapter 12 deals with "The Holy Land," i.e. Israel-Palestine, where Christians are sometimes subject to attacks by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Israel-Palestine is a very complex situation, and of course there is good behavior and bad behavior on the parts of Christians, Jews, and Muslims (and others) alike. Shortt has a good deal of sympathy - and rightly so - for Arab Christians whose free expression of their faith is curtailed as well as for innocent Palestinian Muslims who suffer for the sins of the minority who espouse violence. The author has less sympathy for evangelical Christians from the U.S. who insert themselves into Israeli-Palestinian geopolitics without a sophisticated understanding of the present reality.
The 13th chapter presents brief summaries of some other problematic areas of the world, including Belarus in Europe and, in the Americas, Cuba and Chile. Shortt notes, for example, that Cuba appears to be getting more restrictive since Raul Castro took over for his brother in 2008. Still, Shortt ends his book on a hopeful note.
Not only is this book an interesting supplement to what we regularly hear on the news regarding current events in Iraq, Nigeria, and elsewhere, it's also a good reminder of why freedom of religion (and freedom to choose no religion at all) is so important in modern multicultural societies. In the U.S., we often take our freedom of religion for granted. Yet we are no different from any other peoples of the world - able to fall victim to mob mentality, the ravings of charismatic sociopaths, and us-versus-them thinking like any other imperfect human beings in the world. All the more reason to cherish and protect our precious freedoms - and that includes standing up for other people, whether we share a religion with them or not, when their religious freedoms are threatened.
May 29, 2013
Rupert Short, Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012). $26.00, 328 pages.
Christianophobia is the story of “a faith under attack,” in the lapidary words of the book’s subtitle. Around the world, but especially in Muslim-majority countries, Christians are persecuted for their faith by agents of the state, by lawless mobs, and sometimes by the former in collusion with the latter.
Some of the persecution may be blowback for the post-9/11 American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, but not all of it. As Rupert Shortt writes: “Looking beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, and on a time frame stretching well back before 11 September 2001, we can see innumerable Christian communities on the defensive against rampant forms of intolerance, both religious and secular. The problem has worsened dramatically since the turn of the millennium: about 200 million Christians are now under threat, more than any other faith group” (ix).
Rather than detailing the problem of Christianophobia with abstract statistics, Shortt sketches it with concrete anecdotes drawn from 19 countries. He devotes a chapter each to persecution of Christians in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Burma, China, Vietnam and North Korea, and Israel. A final chapter quickly examines Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Sudan.
The sources of Christianophobia are numerous. The sources can be religious, such as in some Muslim-majority countries, which have a tradition of both jihad and dhimmitude. (This point should be carefully qualified and not overstated, however, since some Muslim-majority countries tolerate religious minorities.) The sources can be ethno-religious, where one’s nationality or caste is tied to a particular religion. In India and Burma, for example, radicalized Hinduism and Buddhism, respectively, drive a nationalistic reaction against Christianity, which is seen as a Western interloper. (Something similar is at work in Belarus, a nominally Orthodox Christian country that makes life difficult for non-Orthodox forms of Christianity.) The sources can also be political, such as in China, Vietnam, and North Korea, where Christian churches are seen as a threat to Communist party control of the state. China sanctions churches in the Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement (which has Catholic and Islamic counterparts), but not house churches, while North Korea bans all overt religious activity.
Whatever the sources of Christianophobia, the expression of it “seems to pass through three phases”: disinformation, discrimination, and persecution. Here, Shortt quotes Johann Candelin of the World Evangelical Fellowship: “Disinformation begins more often than not in the media. Through printed articles, radio, television, and other means, Christians are robbed of their good reputation and their right to answer accusations made against them.” That is followed by discrimination, which “relegates Christians to a second-class citizenship with poorer legal, social, political, and economic standing than the majority in the country.” Finally, there is persecution “from the state, the police or military, extreme organisations, mobs, paramilitary groups, or representatives of other religions” (174-175).
Christianophobia is an excellent survey of the problem of persecution of Christians worldwide. It provides helpful historical background material alongside individual anecdotes. Its treatment of Muslim-majority countries is nuanced, noting that while theology plays a role in Christian persecution, it does not play the only role. Indeed, Shortt holds out hope that Muslim-majority countries will evolve toward greater religious freedom for religious minorities, just as Christian-majority countries have done.
The one false note in this book is the chapter on Israel. Israel is not perfect, of course, but to include it in a book on Christianophobia is perverse, especially since Freedom House rates Israel as a religiously “free” country. (The inclusion of Venezuela, another “free” country, is also questionable, though it does not receive a chapter-length survey.) Indeed, it seems that Shortt’s real interest in Israel is theological. Of the 16 pages in his chapter on Israel, 5 are given over to a Christian theology of the land. Islam does not come in for a similar Christian theological critique. Whatever the merits or demerits of Shortt’s theological interpretation of Israel, this book is not the right venue to state them.
This reservation aside, Christianophobia is a valuable contribution to the literature on the global problem of Christian persecution. And timely. On Tuesday, May 21, 2013, Iranian security forces arrested Pastor Robert Asserian during a morning prayer service at Central Assembly of God in Tehran. He joins Pastor Farhad Sabokrooh, Sabokrooh’s wife Shahnaz Jayzan, and two church members of their Ahvaz Assemblies of God, Naser Zaman-Dezfuli and Davoud Alijani in jail. They had been arrested originally in December 2011, convicted of “converting to Christianity and propagating against the Islamic regime through evangelism,” sentenced to one year in jail each, and released early. They were rearrested to serve out the remaining time on the original conviction. Also, Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving a term of eight years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for his leadership in Iran’s house-church movement. These six Christians put names and faces on the irrational fear and deep hatred—the Christiano-phobia—faced by millions of their brothers and sisters in faith around the globe.
P.S. If you found this review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
Christianophobia is the story of “a faith under attack,” in the lapidary words of the book’s subtitle. Around the world, but especially in Muslim-majority countries, Christians are persecuted for their faith by agents of the state, by lawless mobs, and sometimes by the former in collusion with the latter.
Some of the persecution may be blowback for the post-9/11 American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, but not all of it. As Rupert Shortt writes: “Looking beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, and on a time frame stretching well back before 11 September 2001, we can see innumerable Christian communities on the defensive against rampant forms of intolerance, both religious and secular. The problem has worsened dramatically since the turn of the millennium: about 200 million Christians are now under threat, more than any other faith group” (ix).
Rather than detailing the problem of Christianophobia with abstract statistics, Shortt sketches it with concrete anecdotes drawn from 19 countries. He devotes a chapter each to persecution of Christians in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Burma, China, Vietnam and North Korea, and Israel. A final chapter quickly examines Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Sri Lanka, Laos, and Sudan.
The sources of Christianophobia are numerous. The sources can be religious, such as in some Muslim-majority countries, which have a tradition of both jihad and dhimmitude. (This point should be carefully qualified and not overstated, however, since some Muslim-majority countries tolerate religious minorities.) The sources can be ethno-religious, where one’s nationality or caste is tied to a particular religion. In India and Burma, for example, radicalized Hinduism and Buddhism, respectively, drive a nationalistic reaction against Christianity, which is seen as a Western interloper. (Something similar is at work in Belarus, a nominally Orthodox Christian country that makes life difficult for non-Orthodox forms of Christianity.) The sources can also be political, such as in China, Vietnam, and North Korea, where Christian churches are seen as a threat to Communist party control of the state. China sanctions churches in the Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement (which has Catholic and Islamic counterparts), but not house churches, while North Korea bans all overt religious activity.
Whatever the sources of Christianophobia, the expression of it “seems to pass through three phases”: disinformation, discrimination, and persecution. Here, Shortt quotes Johann Candelin of the World Evangelical Fellowship: “Disinformation begins more often than not in the media. Through printed articles, radio, television, and other means, Christians are robbed of their good reputation and their right to answer accusations made against them.” That is followed by discrimination, which “relegates Christians to a second-class citizenship with poorer legal, social, political, and economic standing than the majority in the country.” Finally, there is persecution “from the state, the police or military, extreme organisations, mobs, paramilitary groups, or representatives of other religions” (174-175).
Christianophobia is an excellent survey of the problem of persecution of Christians worldwide. It provides helpful historical background material alongside individual anecdotes. Its treatment of Muslim-majority countries is nuanced, noting that while theology plays a role in Christian persecution, it does not play the only role. Indeed, Shortt holds out hope that Muslim-majority countries will evolve toward greater religious freedom for religious minorities, just as Christian-majority countries have done.
The one false note in this book is the chapter on Israel. Israel is not perfect, of course, but to include it in a book on Christianophobia is perverse, especially since Freedom House rates Israel as a religiously “free” country. (The inclusion of Venezuela, another “free” country, is also questionable, though it does not receive a chapter-length survey.) Indeed, it seems that Shortt’s real interest in Israel is theological. Of the 16 pages in his chapter on Israel, 5 are given over to a Christian theology of the land. Islam does not come in for a similar Christian theological critique. Whatever the merits or demerits of Shortt’s theological interpretation of Israel, this book is not the right venue to state them.
This reservation aside, Christianophobia is a valuable contribution to the literature on the global problem of Christian persecution. And timely. On Tuesday, May 21, 2013, Iranian security forces arrested Pastor Robert Asserian during a morning prayer service at Central Assembly of God in Tehran. He joins Pastor Farhad Sabokrooh, Sabokrooh’s wife Shahnaz Jayzan, and two church members of their Ahvaz Assemblies of God, Naser Zaman-Dezfuli and Davoud Alijani in jail. They had been arrested originally in December 2011, convicted of “converting to Christianity and propagating against the Islamic regime through evangelism,” sentenced to one year in jail each, and released early. They were rearrested to serve out the remaining time on the original conviction. Also, Pastor Saeed Abedini is serving a term of eight years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison for his leadership in Iran’s house-church movement. These six Christians put names and faces on the irrational fear and deep hatred—the Christiano-phobia—faced by millions of their brothers and sisters in faith around the globe.
P.S. If you found this review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
August 27, 2014
Those of us who are curious about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and other non-Western countries will find this book helpful in documenting what is going on. Rupert Shortt gives us information regarding the following countries: Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Burma, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and the Holy Land.
Each chapter gives a history of the issues in that country and then documents many of the attacks against Christians and their churches, businesses, homes and schools.
With the atrocities of ISIS prevalent on the nightly news many Westerners are wondering what they can do or what is the cause of much of this violence and rage that is being poured out on the non-Muslim populations in the Middle East. Shortt will give you some background and help you to clarify what has been happening not just recently but for many centuries.
The Western Church needs to read a work like this to get a better grasp on the issues facing God's people throughout the world. This book is not for the faint of heart as it will give you the details as to what is happening and the cruelty being inflicted on many innocent people, Christian as well as Muslim.
You will not find an answer to the problem within these pages, but you will find a good description of what the problem is.
Each chapter gives a history of the issues in that country and then documents many of the attacks against Christians and their churches, businesses, homes and schools.
With the atrocities of ISIS prevalent on the nightly news many Westerners are wondering what they can do or what is the cause of much of this violence and rage that is being poured out on the non-Muslim populations in the Middle East. Shortt will give you some background and help you to clarify what has been happening not just recently but for many centuries.
The Western Church needs to read a work like this to get a better grasp on the issues facing God's people throughout the world. This book is not for the faint of heart as it will give you the details as to what is happening and the cruelty being inflicted on many innocent people, Christian as well as Muslim.
You will not find an answer to the problem within these pages, but you will find a good description of what the problem is.
June 17, 2018
Balanced. Highlights an underreported reality.
August 26, 2014
I get what Rupert Shortt is trying to do in Christianophobia in spotlighting the abuses and persecution members of the Christian faith experience in many countries throughout the world particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Ultimately, this book performed below my expectations in that each chapter reads like a snapshot collection of anecdotal stories of persecution which leads me to believe that persecution can happen anywhere on earth. I think any state could be considered [name religion] phobic on the type of evidence Shortt brings forward.
The more damning thing in my mind is that Shortt contradicts himself a lot by mentioning that Muslim minorities are also persecuted…I thought this was Christianopobia not Minority Religionophobia. Christians are a minority but they are not the only minority in many of these countries. This inclusion just seems to leave the reader cycling back and forth from “Christians are persecuted and that’s horrible” to “These groups are persecuted and that’s also horrible.” If an author says that Christians are persecuted in x, y, z, then the focus needs to stay there.
It is my feeling that this book started with good intentions, but got bogged down in contradiction. It may serve as an okay introduction on a topic, if you know absolutely nothing on the topic, but for depth look elsewhere.
The more damning thing in my mind is that Shortt contradicts himself a lot by mentioning that Muslim minorities are also persecuted…I thought this was Christianopobia not Minority Religionophobia. Christians are a minority but they are not the only minority in many of these countries. This inclusion just seems to leave the reader cycling back and forth from “Christians are persecuted and that’s horrible” to “These groups are persecuted and that’s also horrible.” If an author says that Christians are persecuted in x, y, z, then the focus needs to stay there.
It is my feeling that this book started with good intentions, but got bogged down in contradiction. It may serve as an okay introduction on a topic, if you know absolutely nothing on the topic, but for depth look elsewhere.
March 12, 2016
Am half way through this book and it provides a really different view about religious
tolerance or lack of it. We hear so much these days about intolerance to Islam and Muslim's
so its a shock in a way to read about the awful treatment of Christians in various countries of
the world. And the treatment of them in many places is brutal, deadly and violent.
Shortt has taken on a delicate topic in this time of being PC, but it is worth reading and
understanding that violence and intolerance is something that crosses religious, national and
cultural boundaries.
tolerance or lack of it. We hear so much these days about intolerance to Islam and Muslim's
so its a shock in a way to read about the awful treatment of Christians in various countries of
the world. And the treatment of them in many places is brutal, deadly and violent.
Shortt has taken on a delicate topic in this time of being PC, but it is worth reading and
understanding that violence and intolerance is something that crosses religious, national and
cultural boundaries.
November 7, 2013
Very interesting and less biased than I had assumed it would be.
Worth a read if you have any interest in the subject matter. Otherwise you are probably best to steer clear.
Worth a read if you have any interest in the subject matter. Otherwise you are probably best to steer clear.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews