Christians Are Persecuted in Every Muslim-Majority Country

As Christians worldwide celebrate Christmas, millions are also suffering from severe pressures and persecution in majority-Muslim countries. This includes post-Soviet states, countries governed by Sharia law, and officially secular nations such as Turkey.

According to a 2024 Human Rights Violations Report authored by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches, Christians are subject to increased hate crimes, hate speech, threats, discrimination, and dismissal from their jobs because of their religion. They also experience physical assaults, no official recognition of the Protestant church, and a lack of cemeteries for Christians. Foreign Christians are deported or banned entry by denying them residence visas. The Protestant community in Turkey is not allowed to open their own churches nor train their own spiritual leaders, forcing them to operate as ‘associations.’ 

Similar persecution is a global phenomenon across other majority-Muslim countries. In the case of Somalia, Christians face the most severe persecution, according to the human rights organization Open Doors. Identifying as a Christian is a matter of life and death. Al-Shabab, an Islamic terrorist group, currently controls large swathes of Somalia. This group enforces a strict form of Sharia and is committed to eradicating Christianity from the country. They have often murdered Somali Christians on the spot. The dangers have increased over the years, as the terrorists have focused on finding and eliminating Christian leaders. 

Almost all of Somalia’s Christians come from a Muslim background, and as converts, they face the greatest risks of persecution. Somali society is based around a strong clan identity, which is heavily intertwined with Islam. Family members and clan leaders view conversion to Christianity as a betrayal. As such, any Christian who is discovered is at an extreme risk of immediate violence. Open Doors notes:

Young female converts to Christianity remain extremely vulnerable, with many living in hiding. Commonly, a woman suspected of converting to Christianity will be humiliated in public, kept under strict house arrest, raped, abducted, forcibly married to a radical sheikh or killed. If already married, she will likely be divorced and have her children taken away to ensure that they are raised in an Islamic way. Christian women also suffer when their husbands are imprisoned or killed; many are taken advantage of by male relatives and the family often ends up impoverished.

Violent chaos is also a cover for persecution against Christians. The current civil war in Yemen, for instance, started in 2014 and eventually escalated when Iran-backed Houthi terrorists took control of the capital, Sanaa. This led to a full-blown conflict in early 2015 with a Saudi-led military intervention against them. Yemen is currently fragmented and controlled by several different groups, primarily the Houthis in the north and the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council in the south. Other groups, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and local tribal militias, maintain influence in various areas of the country.

Christians are not safe under the rule of any of these groups. Pressure on Christians is at a maximum. In recent years, Houthis have expanded their power, making more of the country increasingly dangerous for Christians, to the point that even secret house churches can no longer meet safely.

In Syria, after more than a decade of war and relentless crisis, the church has diminished significantly. In December 2024, al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terror group took over Damascus, overthrowing the regime of Bashar Assad and escalating persecution against religious minorities. As Open Doors reports,

The new authority’s Sunni Islamic background has caused deep anxiety among the Christian population. Islamic influence now controls state and government facilities. “Everywhere, a sheik appears to be making key decisions, in the government but also in the checkpoints,” several church leaders share.

“I live in fear for my family. Throughout the year, my children saw a lot of different people with beards and guns, calling their mother an infidel. They are now scared to go to the streets or go to the church on their own,” expresses Wael. He is a worker in one of the churches in Homs.

Throughout the year, daily life became more challenging for Christians in Syria because of different forms of persecution. Most devastating was the June 22nd bombing of St. Elias Church in Dweila, Damascus. 25 people were killed (22 of them Christians), and about 60 Christians were injured. For a week following the terror attack, churches all around Syria were almost empty, and all activities were postponed. 

In Afghanistan, the church is deeply underground. There is no publicly accessible church in the country; for almost fifty years, Afghanistan has not had an official church building. The only functioning chapel was reported to be in the basement of the Italian embassy in Kabul. It was only open for the small number of expatriates still working in the city—mainly diplomatic and military staff—but it is closed for the time being. Christian materials are hidden, and even sharing them electronically can have life-threatening consequences if traced. Because of the Taliban, there are no visible expressions of Christianity in the country.

In Algeria, all Protestant churches have been forced to close. At least eighteen Christians are facing prison sentences because of their religion. One of these Christians is the Protestant Church of Algeria’s vice-president, Pastor Youssef Ourahmane, who was sentenced in 2024 to one year in prison, six months suspended, and 100,000 dinars in fines for holding an unauthorized religious assembly and conducting worship in a building not authorized for that purpose. 

All Catholics in Algeria who proselytize (a term left open to local interpretation) are liable to criminal prosecution and deportation if they are not Algerian nationals, reports the European Center of Law and Justice (ECLJ):

The Catholic Church was reduced to witnessing only through charity. However, since the Algerian government has imposed the closure of the Caritas Algeria organization on October 1, 2022, this is now also forbidden. Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers, has said he does not want to “come into conflict with the authorities” and wanted to “continue to do good without making noise.”

In majority-Muslim countries, Christians with a Muslim background bear the brunt of persecution. Even in post-Soviet countries whose governments are secular, Christian converts from Islam are severely persecuted. 

In Kyrgyzstan, for instance, there has been a sharp increase in violence against the church. Many registered churches and Christian institutions were forced to close, and pressure on Christians has increased in nearly all spheres of life. Open Doors notes,

Kyrgyzstan’s culture is founded on Islamic values and traditions. 70 years of atheism during the Soviet era did not succeed in wiping this out. Rural areas are particularly affected, so Christians with a Muslim background not only have to cope with oppression from the government, but also from society around them. For instance, there have often been reports over the years of burials for converts to Christianity being blocked by Muslim villagers.”

13 out of the 20 most dangerous countries to be Christian are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 16.2 million Christians are currently displaced. In many African countries (such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, and Sudan) Christians face violent persecution at the hands of Islamic terrorists. These countries have become breeding grounds for targeted attacks against Christians, with Nigeria being the most severe case. 

The latest updated report by the organization Intersociety says that between 2010 and October 2025, at least 185,000 people in Nigeria were killed by Islamic groups on account of their faith. This includes 125,000 Christians and 60,000 nonviolent Muslims. The entire population of Nigeria is close to 240 million. In addition, 19,100 churches were burned to the ground, and 1,100 entire Christian communities were seized and occupied by jihadist forces.

Christians continue to be detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned for their faith in majority-Muslim countries such as Eritrea, Bangladesh, and Iran, amongst others. On December 9, Article 18 (a human rights group) reported that five Iranian Christians were sentenced to a combined more than 50 years in prison on charges related to ordinary religious activities such as praying, performing baptisms, taking Communion, and celebrating Christmas. In recent years, hundreds of Christians in Iran have been arrested and jailed.

In countries ruled by Sharia (Islamic law), it is impossible to openly convert to Christianity and remain safe and free. Qatar is one of the most extreme cases against Christian converts. Christians in Qatar face persecution, which includes restrictions from the government and society. Qataris and migrants from Muslim families who are Christian converts cannot openly practice Christianity. The only recognized Christians are migrant workers from non-Muslim countries. They are only permitted to meet in specific churches. Christian migrant workers face danger if they are suspected to have shared their faith with local people. There is an official religious complex outside the capital, Doha, where a select number of churches can gather. Qatari citizens are not allowed to enter, and migrant Christians must not speak about Christianity to Muslims. If they do, they may be arrested or deported. 

Anybody suspected of being a Christian, particularly a Qatari or someone from a Muslim-majority country, can face discrimination, harassment, and police monitoring. Changing one’s faith from Islam is not officially recognized, which can cause legal problems around marriage and property ownership. A married Christian convert, if discovered, is likely to face divorce and lose custody of their children. Qatar is increasingly using advanced technology to monitor both citizens and immigrants. Christian converts from a Muslim background usually keep their faith secret. A woman who converts to Christianity may experience house arrest, sexual violence, or, in the most extreme cases, so-called ‘honor killing.’ Authorities do not interfere in what happens in the family home, so there is little chance of legal justice.

In Egypt, the indigenous Coptic Christians experience increasing persecution by the government and society. Coptic Christian women face an epidemic of kidnapping, rape, beatings, and torture at the hands of Muslim men. Hundreds of Coptic girls and women have been abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and coerced into marriage. The latest victim is Samah Nashed Ageeb, a 27-year-old married Coptic woman and mother of a seven-year-old son, who has been missing since December 9. In a video posted on social media, Samah’s father made an appeal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, asking for urgent intervention to help secure his daughter’s return.

As the organization Coptic Solidarity notes, 

Copts have survived centuries of horrific persecution since the first Arab Muslim invasion in the 7th Century to the Memlouks, and Turks. They lost countless lives to rulers intent on forcing them to convert to Islam through torture, imprisonment, unbearable taxation, starvation, cruelty, and every method conceivable to lure them away from their faith.”

All indigenous peoples from the Middle East to North Africa who were invaded by Muslim armies—first by the Arabs and later by Ottoman Turks—faced persecution, massacres and forced conversions. 

What is even more tragic is most of those countries were majority-Christian before their violent conquests by Islam starting in the seventh century.  Centuries later, Christians are now a beleaguered, oppressed minority—a reality largely ignored by Western governments and mainstream media.  

Kelsey Zorzi, Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom with ADF International, told europeanconservative.com:

Too often, mainstream Western media overlook attacks on Christian communities or the use of egregious criminal charges against Christians for peacefully living out their faith. Yet the media plays a critical role in holding to account governments that permit or tolerate persecution, and sustained, contextual reporting has repeatedly shown it can move the needle—prompting diplomatic pressure, legal reform, and greater protection for vulnerable religious communities.

Western governments must make the protection of religious freedom a non-negotiable part of their foreign policy. This requires sustained pressure—backed by real consequences—to repeal blasphemy and apostasy laws, to permit religious conversion without fear of punishment, to reverse growing restrictions on religious expression, including online, and to ensure that Christians and other religious minorities can worship freely and safely with their co-religionists in their places of worship, including pathways for asylum or relocation for those facing severe persecution.

Where Christians are targeted by radical non-state actors, states have a clear obligation under international law to prevent such attacks, protect vulnerable communities, and ensure accountability. Multilateral institutions, including the UN, must likewise prioritize these rights and address violations consistently rather than treating them as politically sensitive or secondary.