The leading force in advocating against Christian persecution since 1995, International Christian Concern (ICC) has recently announced the world's top persecutors of Christians in 2021 in a new report that details up to 24 of the worst oppressors for Christians. The organization also named one country, one entity, and one individual as the worst Christian oppressors this year.
According to the Christian Headlines, the ICC named Nigeria as the worst country for Christian persecution this year. ICC President Jeff King explained to The Christian Post that the African nation had engaged in a "20-year war against Christians," which he also called a genocide. King added, "There's a one-sided war against Christians; there are two guerilla forces or factions fighting Christians."
The new ICC report on the world's top persecutors of Christians revealed that about 50,000 to 70,000 Christians in Nigeria have been slaughtered since 2000. Nigeria is also home to the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram, which is responsible for displacing "[displacing] millions of people and [killing] tens of thousands of others."
The report also accused "conservative Islamic communities" for continuing to "[allow] the forceful conversion and marriage of young Christian women and discriminated against Christians seeking employment." Nigerian Christians are also subjected to persecution from Fulani militants who have slaughtered more Christians in the last few years than Boko Haram and have also displaced Christian farmers in the country.
An estimated 3 million Christians have been displaced from their homes or had their farms stolen by extremists. The ICC president also accused the Nigerian government of being "complicit" in the attacks against Christians.
Meanwhile, the ICC named the Taliban as the worst group to carry out persecution against Christians in 2021. King said that the Taliban's recapturing of Afghanistan after the U.S. troops pulled out in August was what urged the persecution watchdog to name them the persecutor of the year. King estimated about 10,000 Christians who are converts from Islam who now live with "a bullseye on [their] back" ebcause they now live in a country with a "culture of radical, fundamentalist Islam."
King said that the Taliban are now going door to door asking where the Christians are. The ICC leader warned that more Christians in Afghanistan will be "tortured and given a chance to turn back to Islam. If you don't, you're going to be tortured more to find out what other Christians you know and then you're killed."
Finally, the ICC named North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as sole persecutor of the year. According to the report, the Kim dynasty's legacy of Christian persecution spans up to three generations, which has "created a religious system modeled on the faith (God/Father/Son) with Kim Jong-un playing the part of the Son that is to be worshiped."
"Any threat to the Son and over-arching religious system is mercilessly crushed," the report said. Moreover, King estimated that the Kim dynasties have "tortured and killed millions of Christians" in the past decades. There is an estimated 30,000 Christians in North Korea who now reside in prison camps, while over a million have been slaughtered.
