The Worldwide Persecution of Christians

Today's focus on anti-Christian persecution is not meant to minimize the suffering of other religious minorities who are imprisoned or killed for their beliefs. As the poet John Donne once wrote, "Any man's death doth diminish me." We stand for human dignity and respect for life from the womb to the tomb, and this subcommittee has and will continue to highlight the sufferings of religious minorities around the globe, be they Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, Baha'i in Iran, Buddhists in occupied Tibet, Yazidis in Iraq, or the Muslim Royhinga people in Burma. Christians, however, remain the most persecuted religious group in the world over and thus deserve the special attention that today's hearing will provide them. As the distinguished journalist John Allen has written, "Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet and too often their martyrs suffer in silence." In the year 2012, Pew reports, Christians were harassed in 110 countries around the world. This is particularly true in the Middle East where Archbishop Francis Chullikatt has said, "flagrant and widespread persecutions of Christians rages."