• About
  • Contact
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Catholic Sabah
  • News
    • All
    • Asia
    • Focus
    • Local
    • Nation
    • Vatican
    • World
    Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

    Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

    KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

    KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

    Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

    Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

    Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

    Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

    Pope Leo XIV to religious sisters: Ask, ‘Is God my everything?’

    Pope Leo XIV to religious sisters: Ask, ‘Is God my everything?’

    From Sydney to the Andes: A journey of hope through youth

    From Sydney to the Andes: A journey of hope through youth

    Cardinal Parolin at World Expo: ‘Beauty is an antidote to cynicism’

    Cardinal Parolin at World Expo: ‘Beauty is an antidote to cynicism’

    Film reveals human, environmental cost of new Indonesian capital

    Film reveals human, environmental cost of new Indonesian capital

    Pope appoints Cambodian bishop as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh

    Pope appoints Cambodian bishop as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh

  • Opinion
    • All
    • Im on my Way
    • Kanou Monuhid Lahan Koposizon
    • Making A Difference
    • Mantad Di Katekis Peter
    • Reflection: Straight Talking
    The power of words

    What to do when there’s nothing you can do

    What Catholic Sabah stands for

    Part 1: Porn a silent addiction?

    The curious story of the Nicene Creed

    The curious story of the Nicene Creed

    Challenges of teaching theology in lived experiences

    Challenges of teaching theology in lived experiences

    Myth and history

    Myth and history

    Did Teresa of Avila inspire Descartes’ ‘I think, therefore I am’?

    Did Teresa of Avila inspire Descartes’ ‘I think, therefore I am’?

    Are conclaves really secret?

    Are conclaves really secret?

    Kartini Day and gender justice in Indonesian Catholicism

    Kartini Day and gender justice in Indonesian Catholicism

  • Feature
    Sisters of Mary uplift Tanzania’s disadvantaged youth

    Sisters of Mary uplift Tanzania’s disadvantaged youth

    Losing a loved one to suicide

    It is better for you that I go away

    ‘We Can’t Just Stand By and Watch’

    ‘We Can’t Just Stand By and Watch’

    Kisah pertemuan dengan Kristus: Pengalaman sertai Jubli para Remaja di Vatikan

    Kisah pertemuan dengan Kristus: Pengalaman sertai Jubli para Remaja di Vatikan

    Council of Constantinople reaffirms Christ’s divinity and clarifies the Trinity

    Council of Constantinople reaffirms Christ’s divinity and clarifies the Trinity

    South Korean Catholic convert finds strength in Legion of Mary

    South Korean Catholic convert finds strength in Legion of Mary

    Slogan “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” harus dipupuk hingga ke generasi seterusnya

    Slogan “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” harus dipupuk hingga ke generasi seterusnya

    Bahasa ibunda adalah warisan dalam kehidupan

    Bahasa ibunda adalah warisan dalam kehidupan

  • Statements
    World Day of Social Communications 2025 message by Pope Francis

    World Day of Social Communications 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Banns of Sacerdotal Ordination

    Banns of Sacerdotal Ordination

    Perutusan daripada Presiden Persidangan Uskup-Uskup Katolik Malaysia sempena Hari Malaysia

    Pastoral Letter on Earthquake in Myanmar and Regional Solidarity Appeal

    Chancery Notice

    Chancery Notice

    FABC Pastoral Letter to the local churches in Asia

    FABC Pastoral Letter to the local churches in Asia

    Commotion in Church: Press statement from Archbishop Simon Poh

    Commotion in Church: Press statement from Archbishop Simon Poh

    Lent 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Lent 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Pastoral Statement for dispensation from fasting  during Chinese New Year 2025

    Pastoral Statement for dispensation from fasting during Chinese New Year 2025

  • Chinese
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • Kadazan Dusun
  • JUBILEE 2025
  • About
  • Donate
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • All
    • Asia
    • Focus
    • Local
    • Nation
    • Vatican
    • World
    Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

    Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

    KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

    KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

    Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

    Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

    Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

    Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

    Pope Leo XIV to religious sisters: Ask, ‘Is God my everything?’

    Pope Leo XIV to religious sisters: Ask, ‘Is God my everything?’

    From Sydney to the Andes: A journey of hope through youth

    From Sydney to the Andes: A journey of hope through youth

    Cardinal Parolin at World Expo: ‘Beauty is an antidote to cynicism’

    Cardinal Parolin at World Expo: ‘Beauty is an antidote to cynicism’

    Film reveals human, environmental cost of new Indonesian capital

    Film reveals human, environmental cost of new Indonesian capital

    Pope appoints Cambodian bishop as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh

    Pope appoints Cambodian bishop as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Phnom Penh

  • Opinion
    • All
    • Im on my Way
    • Kanou Monuhid Lahan Koposizon
    • Making A Difference
    • Mantad Di Katekis Peter
    • Reflection: Straight Talking
    The power of words

    What to do when there’s nothing you can do

    What Catholic Sabah stands for

    Part 1: Porn a silent addiction?

    The curious story of the Nicene Creed

    The curious story of the Nicene Creed

    Challenges of teaching theology in lived experiences

    Challenges of teaching theology in lived experiences

    Myth and history

    Myth and history

    Did Teresa of Avila inspire Descartes’ ‘I think, therefore I am’?

    Did Teresa of Avila inspire Descartes’ ‘I think, therefore I am’?

    Are conclaves really secret?

    Are conclaves really secret?

    Kartini Day and gender justice in Indonesian Catholicism

    Kartini Day and gender justice in Indonesian Catholicism

  • Feature
    Sisters of Mary uplift Tanzania’s disadvantaged youth

    Sisters of Mary uplift Tanzania’s disadvantaged youth

    Losing a loved one to suicide

    It is better for you that I go away

    ‘We Can’t Just Stand By and Watch’

    ‘We Can’t Just Stand By and Watch’

    Kisah pertemuan dengan Kristus: Pengalaman sertai Jubli para Remaja di Vatikan

    Kisah pertemuan dengan Kristus: Pengalaman sertai Jubli para Remaja di Vatikan

    Council of Constantinople reaffirms Christ’s divinity and clarifies the Trinity

    Council of Constantinople reaffirms Christ’s divinity and clarifies the Trinity

    South Korean Catholic convert finds strength in Legion of Mary

    South Korean Catholic convert finds strength in Legion of Mary

    Slogan “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” harus dipupuk hingga ke generasi seterusnya

    Slogan “Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa” harus dipupuk hingga ke generasi seterusnya

    Bahasa ibunda adalah warisan dalam kehidupan

    Bahasa ibunda adalah warisan dalam kehidupan

  • Statements
    World Day of Social Communications 2025 message by Pope Francis

    World Day of Social Communications 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Banns of Sacerdotal Ordination

    Banns of Sacerdotal Ordination

    Perutusan daripada Presiden Persidangan Uskup-Uskup Katolik Malaysia sempena Hari Malaysia

    Pastoral Letter on Earthquake in Myanmar and Regional Solidarity Appeal

    Chancery Notice

    Chancery Notice

    FABC Pastoral Letter to the local churches in Asia

    FABC Pastoral Letter to the local churches in Asia

    Commotion in Church: Press statement from Archbishop Simon Poh

    Commotion in Church: Press statement from Archbishop Simon Poh

    Lent 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Lent 2025 message by Pope Francis

    Pastoral Statement for dispensation from fasting  during Chinese New Year 2025

    Pastoral Statement for dispensation from fasting during Chinese New Year 2025

  • Chinese
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • Kadazan Dusun
  • JUBILEE 2025
  • About
  • Donate
No Result
View All Result
Catholic Sabah
No Result
View All Result
Home Feature

Christians face a climate of fear in six Asian countries

January 26, 2021
in Feature
Christians face a climate of fear in six Asian countries

This picture of a detention camp in North Korea was drawn using a former prisoner’s testimony. Christians often endure long stays in labor camps. (Image: Amnesty International)

By Ben Joseph

Jan 26 2021

North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran and India are worst for Christian persecution, says Open Doors

Christians in six Asian countries live under extreme persecution where feudal, oligarchic, authoritarian and theocratic governments call the shots, says the latest report by a Christian advocacy group.

The 2021 World Watch List, compiled by the US-based Christian advocacy group Open Doors, says North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran and India are hotbeds of Christian persecution in Asia.

These countries have been occupying positions ranging from first to 10th for global Christian persecution since 2015, according to the report released on Jan. 13.

Christians in these nations are harassed, discriminated against and put to death for their faith because the majority community and authoritarian governments view Christianity as a relic of white privilege and a symbol of Western colonialism, the group said.

Except in North Korea, where the communist party’s diktats run riot, governments in the other five countries are remote-controlled by hardliners and conservatives who fear that Christianity is always susceptible to external influences and use it as a ploy to mobilize the majority against the Christian minority, the report said.

Of late, violence in the form of abductions, forced conversions and sex attacks perpetrated against Christian women go unnoticed and unreported as the governments and law-enforcement agencies, including the legal system, openly appease the majoritarian mob.

Less surprisingly, in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Pakistan, the fringe elements act as the mainstream and inflict horrific abuses on Christians, the report said.

Christians in the worst-hit Asian countries are holed up in harsh labor camps where forced labor, torture, persecution, starvation, rape, forced abortion and sexual violence have become the order of the day.

Moreover, extrajudicial killings are staged when it suits the fringe elements and governments to enter the good books of the majoritarian mob after molding the political narrative of the country to suit violence.

The intolerant governments in these countries use the legal route to target Christians and sweeping anti-conversion laws and notorious blasphemy laws are in force that come in handy against Christians.

Open Doors has been compiling the World Watch List since 2002 and awards countries scores based on violence levels.

Other countries in this year’s list are Somalia, Libya, Eritrea and Nigeria in Africa.

North Korean Christians in labor camps

In communist North Korea, paying obeisance to anyone or anything other than paramount and recalcitrant leader Kim Jong-un and his party is forbidden. Kim enjoys near-deification status and a personality cult.

No wonder then that the East Asian nation of 26 million people dubiously occupies the first slot in the Open Doors report, as it has for the past 20 years.

Being discovered as a Christian in 37-year-old Kim’s country can invite a lifelong stay in a labor camp as a political prisoner.

According to Open Doors, nearly 70,000 Christians are currently toiling in labor camps in North Korea. The Christian population living under the single-party dictatorship is pegged at 400,000.

With the help of secret police, Christians are identified and handpicked and there are instances of children being used against parents and husband against wife to zero in on a practicing Christian.

Islamic torture

Forsaking the official Islam religion comes with dire consequences in Afghanistan, which is the second-worst Asian country for Christian persecution on the list.

Hardliners identify and round up Christians. Family members also engage in so-called “honor killings” of Christians to disown believers, making it hard for Christians to get new recruits.

In Pakistan, another Islamic country, Christians are considered second-class citizens and associated with low, dirty and dishonorable jobs. They are often victims of bonded labor, a form of modern-day slavery.

Middle-class Christian youths face discrimination at workplaces where Muslim counterparts tilt the balance.

The misuse of the notorious blasphemy law threatens the lives of Christians who form just 1.59 percent in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 212 million.

From 2011 to 2015, which witnessed the rise of right-wing parties in Pakistan, more than 1,296 blasphemy cases were filed.

According to the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, there are 80 persons on death row or serving life imprisonment in blasphemy-related cases.

India’s draconian laws

After the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, Christians, particularly those in Hindi-speaking northern India, are accused of dubious conversions.

Hindu groups, collectively called Sangh Parivar, support the BJP’s goal of a theocratic Hindu nation and fear a rise in the Christian population will adversely affect their mission.

Several states have enacted draconian anti-conversion laws, making conversion without informing the government a punishable offense.

Any sort of public display of Christian faith can invite the wrath of right-wing groups, who have managed to keep tabs on foreign funding of Christian charity organizations to undermine their financial resources and routine functioning, the report said.

The impunity with which Christians are persecuted in these six Asian countries has created a regional problem which is the worst in the world due to the apparent reluctance of governments to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.

Though one in eight Christians face violence worldwide, their number is two out of five in Asia, where Christians live in a climate of fear due to rampant religious persecution. – UCANews

Previous Post

Catholic priest murdered in the Philippines

Next Post

Being a pastor in the pandemic

Related Posts

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau
Bahasa Melayu

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

July 2, 2025
Jul 2 2025
Readings

Jul 2 2025

July 2, 2025
KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia
Bahasa Melayu

KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

July 1, 2025
Next Post
Being a pastor in the pandemic

Being a pastor in the pandemic

Recent News

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

July 2, 2025
KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

July 1, 2025
Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

July 1, 2025
Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

July 1, 2025
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Minor reshuffle and new appointment of priests

Minor reshuffle and new appointment of priests

July 15, 2024
Enggan punya anak, antara sebab perpisahan suami-isteri

Enggan punya anak, antara sebab perpisahan suami-isteri

May 20, 2025
Minor transfer of priests

Minor transfer of priests

November 11, 2023
Tender Notice St Catherine of Laboure Church, Putatan

Tender Notice St Catherine of Laboure Church, Putatan

April 29, 2025
The Church wants to be more the ‘inn’ of the Good Samaritan for the sick

The Church wants to be more the ‘inn’ of the Good Samaritan for the sick

Parishioners are invited to help form prophetic and servant priests

Parishioners are invited to help form prophetic and servant priests

Archdiocesan Notice on SSPX

Archdiocesan Notice on SSPX

April 28 2020

April 28 2020

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

July 2, 2025
Jul 2 2025

Jul 2 2025

July 2, 2025
KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

July 1, 2025
The power of words

What to do when there’s nothing you can do

July 1, 2025
Catholic Sabah

Catholic Sabah is a media organization based in Sabah Malaysia. We bring you the latest Catholic news right to your doorstep!

Follow Us

Browse by Category

  • Asia
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • Borneo: Ordinary Person, Extraordinary Faith
  • Chinese
  • Feature
  • Focus
  • Im on my Way
  • JUBILEE 2025
  • Kadazan Dusun
  • Kanou Monuhid Lahan Koposizon
  • Local
  • Making A Difference
  • Mantad Di Katekis Peter
  • Nation
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Readings
  • Reflection: Straight Talking
  • Statements
  • Vatican
  • World

Recent Additions

Pelancaran Salib MPC peringkat Keuskupan Keningau

Jul 2 2025

KEP- 4 Sabah: Diutus untuk menjadi penjala manusia

What to do when there’s nothing you can do

Young missionaries inspire youth to fully trust God

Pope: ‘Hunger must not be used as a weapon of war’

  • About
  • Contact

© 2024 Catholic Sabah - Powered by KK Top Web.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Feature
  • Statements
  • Chinese
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • Kadazan Dusun
  • JUBILEE 2025
  • About
  • Donate

© 2024 Catholic Sabah - Powered by KK Top Web.