War on Christianity > Pandemic Leads to 60 per cent Increase in Murder of Christians in 2020

Open Doors Releases 2021 World Watch List

Written by Libby Giesbrecht

Saturday, Jan 16 2021, 9:53 AM

(Open Doors USA)

Getting used to a "new normal" was a very different experience for Christians in parts of the world where "restrictions" meant they would be refused access to food, medical care, and crucial aid.

Open Doors is releasing their 2021 World Watch List (WWL), showing the levels of worldwide discrimination against Christians over the past year.

The list reveals how COVID-19 led to increased systemic discrimination against minority Christians.

Open Doors says the pandemic meant Christians from India to Yemen saw an increase in violence and discrimination, lacked basic necessities, and were put under increased surveillance because of their faith.

The list, produced by Open Doors International annually, highlights the exacerbation of systemic discrimination and persecution more than 304 million Christians around the world experienced in 2020 due to the coronavirus.

According to the findings in the WWL, COVID-19 was a reason behind the worsening of persecution already experienced by believers across the globe.

The pandemic encouraged the repression of minority Christians in countries like Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Some were denied aid, the report shows. Others were told they could not have food because "your Church or your God should feed you."

A violent Islamist group in Somalia, Al Shabaab, blamed Christians for the existence of COVID-19, stating the virus was "spread why (by?) crusader forces who have invaded the country and the disbelieving countries that support them."

COVID-19 gave authorities in some countries the authority to investigate the homes of Christians and church members.

Open Doors says their WWL is the "only instrument actively measuring the persecution of Christians, world-wide, annually."

For the first time, all 50 countries on the WWL scored levels of persecution considered to be "very high." The top 12 countries were labelled with "extreme" levels of persecution.

In 2020, 34 countries scored at the level of "very high" persecution.

In total, 74 countries showed "extreme," "very high," or "high" levels of persecution. This is one higher than in the previous year.

Open Doors estimates at least 1 in 8 of all Christians worldwide were affected.

The top countries ranked as having an "extreme" level of persecution include North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, and Yemen.

The list will be released during an online event today on Facebook and YouTube at 6 p.m. local time. Christians gathering for the release of the WWL will engage in a time of learning, worship, and prayer for persecuted Christians around the world.

"As we grapple with restrictions here, we can learn a great deal from our brothers and sisters living in countries where their faith costs them dearly, every year. They know they are not alone, because we have not forgotten them," says Gary Stagg, executive director of Open Doors Canada.

"The World Watch List helps us advocate for them intelligently, and pray for them intentionally that they would be able to stay, as lights in dark places."

Car Bomb Kills Maltese Journalist Who Accused PM of Corruption

Corruption is Everywhere

By Danielle Haynes  

UPI -- A car bomb on Malta's southern island killed a journalist who linked the government to the Panama Papers scandal, local police said Monday.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, died when her car exploded shortly after she left her home in Bidnija, BBC News reported. The bomb left her vehicle in several pieces along a road and nearby field around 3 p.m.

Caruana Galizia filed a police report 15 days before her death saying she had been threatened, The Times of Malta reported.

Earlier this year, she accused Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of wrongdoing, linking him and his wife to the Panama Papers. The papers included documents detailing financial information, some of which included fraud and tax evasion.

Despite the accusations, Muscat condemned her death. Police opened a murder investigation.

"I condemn without reservations this barbaric attack on a person and on the freedom of expression in our country," he said in a televised statement.

Muscat said there was "no justification ... in any way" for her death.

"I will not rest before justice is done," he said.

Thousands of people gathered Monday night in Sliema for a candlelight vigil. Maltese nationals in London also held an event outside Malta's High Commission in Mayfair.

Bidnija, Malta

Ukraine Celebrates National Heroes and Mass Murderers of Jews

Ukraine opens monument to nationalist icon Petliura

blamed for anti-Jewish pogroms

Ataman Simon Petlyura (С) and his staff © Sputnik

A monument to Symon Petliura, who fought for Ukrainian independence after the 1917 Russian Revolution, and under whose leadership thousands of Jews were killed in pogroms, has been opened in the city of Vinnitsa in western Ukraine.

The sculpture was erected in the courtyard of the building that formerly hosted the Ministry of Post and Telegraph of the self-proclaimed Ukrainian People’s Republic, which was headed by Petliura in 1917-1921. The Ukrainian nationalist icon is portrayed sitting on a bench with a map of the country in his hands.

The Vinnitsa authorities unveiled the monument on Saturday, when the country marked the Defender of Ukraine Day – a new holiday ordered by President Petro Poroshenko in 2014.

“He was a man who sincerely loved his country, his native language, who tried to be honest with his own people,” Valery Korovy, the chairman of the Vinnitsa Region administration, said of Petliura, claiming that the Soviets did everything to “malign this honest man,” as cited by Ukraina.ru.

It is the first monument to Petliura in Ukraine, which previously only had a bust erected in the capital, Kiev, and a memorial sign in Poltava.

35,000 - 50,000 Jews killed

Petliura fought for Ukraine’s independence from Soviet Russia, following the October Revolution of 1917. During his time as the head of the Ukrainian People's Republic, between 35,000 and 50,000 Jews were killed in a string of pogroms.

This, apparently, occurred in just 4 years and had nothing to do with the Holocaust.

After his cause failed Petliura fled to Paris, where he was killed in 1926 by a Ukrainian-born Jewish watchmaker, Sholom Schwartzbard. Despite Schwartzbard being caught red-handed, he was later acquitted by a French court, which ruled that he was acting in the heat of the moment after 15 of his relatives were killed in the pogroms.

Petliura’s apologists claimed he was personally against the pogroms, but lost control of his armed forces who engaged in killing Jews. Schwartzbard’s defense and some historians, however, hold Petliura directly responsible as the head of the government who did nothing to prevent them as he wanted to avoid a spat with his forces.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian authorities have been facing criticism over their attempts to glorify controversial nationalist figures, including those who openly sided with the Nazis.

In 2000, they awarded ‘Hero of Ukraine’ titles to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II and were involved in mass killings of Jews and Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. 

The decision was later annulled under condemnation from the European Parliament, but Bandera and Shukhevych still have monuments and streets named after them across Ukraine.

Boko Haram Kills 18 Women at Funeral Wake

By Doug G. Ware  UPI  

ADAMAWA, Nigeria, June 17 (UPI) -- More than two dozen women were attacked by Boko Haram militants Thursday at a funeral wake in Adamawa state in northeast Nigeria, authorities said.

    Kuda, Nigeria

Police said the women had gathered in Kuda village when militants suddenly arrived on motorcycles and began shooting. Witnesses also reported that the militants set homes on fire.

At least 18 people were killed and 10 were wounded in the attack, news media reported.

Officials, though, said they were not initially certain exactly how many were killed or wounded.

The site of the attack, Kuda village, is near the Sambisa Forest -- where militants fled after being run from urban areas in Nigeria, and where the first of 219 kidnapped schoolgirls were rescued last month.

Boko Haram continues to operate in Nigeria, despite the nation's president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying months ago that the group had been "technically defeated."

News media also reported that the militant group killed four people and kidnapped at least three women near Chibok on Thursday.