Is Trump closing the door to persecuted Christians

 

The 'golden door' is 'closed': US won't admit persecuted Christian refugees in 2026, report warns

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Friday, September 04, 2026

An Ethiopian refugee who fled the Tigray conflict prays during Sunday Mass at an Ethiopian Orthodox church building built by former Ethiopian refugees, at the village next to Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 6, 2020. Some 400 Orthodox Christian believers attended the biggest mass at Jibreel (Gabriel) Church since it reopened its doors just over a week ago to refugees at Um Raqouba camp near the Ethiopian border. | Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The United States is on track to admit zero Christians fleeing from the world's worst countries for persecution in fiscal year 2026, according to a new report from the global watchdog Open Doors and the Evangelical refugee resettlement agency World Relief. 

The organizations unveiled their new report Thursday at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, documenting the state of Christian persecution worldwide and the number of refugees admitted into the U.S.

The release comes one month before the Trump administration is set to determine the number of refugees to be admitted to the country in fiscal year 2027, which begins Oct. 1.

“The U.S. has essentially taken this golden door and closed it,” asserted World Relief CEO Myal Greene at Thursday’s event. 

The report, titled “State of the Golden Door: Evaluating U.S. Refugee Resettlement and Asylum in Light of Global Christian Persecution,” states that the number of refugee admissions from the 50 countries on the 2026 Open Doors World Watch List had plummeted to zero in fiscal year 2026, which concludes at the end of the month. 

While the report primarily focused on persecuted Christians, it acknowledged that the halt on refugee resettlement during the Trump administration has applied to all religious minorities in those countries, not just Christians.

“Only three refugees were resettled from a country on the Open Doors World Watch List, and those individuals were not religious minorities," the report states. "We can conclude with a high degree of confidence that in FY2026, no refugees experiencing religious persecution will be resettled in the U.S."

The report is critical of President Donald Trump’s designation of an “invasion” at the southern border, his halting of all refugee resettlement in a January 2025 executive order and the administration’s implementation of guidance encouraging enforcement officials to “remove any noncitizens attempting to enter either at or between ports of entry even if they were attempting to seek asylum.”

Although refugees have been admitted to the U.S. in fiscal year 2026, the Trump administration has prioritized the resettlement of white South Africans whom it describes as “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”Statistics in the report reveal that the asylum approval rate for countries on the World Watch List decreased from 58% in fiscal year 2023 to 10% in fiscal year 2026.

As fiscal year 2026 is on track to be the first year in at least a quarter century when not a single Christian refugee was admitted to the U.S., Open Doors estimates that 388 million Christians faced persecution worldwide — one out of every seven Christians around the globe.

Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown said “the breadth of persecution” and “the depth of persecution” against Christians have increased.

Specific examples of Christian persecution mentioned by Brown include Sub-Saharan Africa, which has seen a “continued surge in the ways that violence is characterizing the ways that persecution is being experienced by Christians on the ground there,” as well as the advancement of “digital surveillance” at “exponential rates” in countries such as China, where “the church is being monitored and technology is being used as a tool to create harm and displacement.”

The actions of the Trump administration as they relate to refugees and asylum seekers come as part of an effort to prioritize border security.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Brown lamented that “one of the things that has become confused in the discourse and the dialogue, especially with Christians, is these issues of border security, these issues of … folks fleeing for economic reasons or those types of opportunities that the U.S. seems to uniquely afford them.” 

“That’s not what this report’s talking about," he said. 

“This report is specifically talking about those individuals that have a reasonable fear for their life and their safety because of their Christian faith and identity,” Brown added. “Throughout the Church history … the Holy Spirit has used people having to leave because of persecution to bring the Gospel and to … spark revival in different places around the globe.”

Brown urged Christians to “prayerfully consider those things to try to just separate those issues that often seem to convolute issues of border security, issues of folks chasing economic opportunity and look at this issue of Christian persecution and those being forced to flee persecution on its own merits.”

He doesn't believe expanding refugee resettlement will endanger the border security the Trump administration has prioritized.

“Often when we engage these conversations, we can do so with this trepidation that there … are floodgates of individuals that … if we open the door a crack … that it’s going to be overflowing with … folks that are coming in," Brown said. "That is traditionally not the case.”

Brown characterized asylum seekers as “a relatively small number of people” who “truly have no other options,” insisting that “these are thousands of cases” as opposed to “millions of cases.”

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2027, Greene maintained that he is not "optimistic to expect a significant reversal of the policy.”

“That said, we’re people of faith, and we’re committed to being faithful in our advocacy and being consistent in bringing these causes to light,” he vowed. “We wouldn’t be issuing this report if we didn’t believe that there are Christians and people close to the administration who have a deep desire to see these policy changes and what that entails.”

World Relief Vice President of Advocacy and Policy Matthew Soerens expressed hope that Trump would reimplement the policy of his first administration, where the president made “individuals who are fleeing religious persecution a priority within the refugee determination in 2019.”

================================================================================================

Aussies turning farther and farther from God

 

The 2026 Census Will Show Australians Are Still Turning Away From Christianity

Jul 17, 2026 11:00 am By Mark Rowley23 Comments

In the 2021 Australian Census, 9,886,957 people (or 38.9% of the population) ticked “no religion.”

The population selecting no religious affiliation grew from roughly 7 million people in 2016 to nearly 9.9 million people in 2021.

Australians identifying as “no religion” rose to 38.9% from 30.1% at the 2016 census and 22.3% in 2011 – an increase of 16.6% in a decade.

The data indicates a massive, multi-generational shift away from Christianity in Australia.

For the first time in Australian Census history, the 2021 results revealed that fewer than half of all Australians (43.9%) identify as Christian, a steep drop from 52.1% in 2016 and 61.1% in 2011.

Fifty years ago, in 1971, that figure was 86.2%.

St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Dxwkx, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

The implications of this are massive, especially when growing populations who practice expansionist, proselytizing religions such as Islam are filling the void.

We can fully expect to see the Muslim population reach 1.2 million and 4.3% of Australia’s population in this year’s census.

It has been roughly doubling every decade, and Shady Alsuleiman, president of the Australian National Imams Council, has been rejoicing at the trend.

“We as a Muslim community, right now, according to the pattern and the trend, we double every 11-12 years,” he said on a podcast in 2025.

“We need to be a part of the decision making,” he said.

“Halal, for example, hijab, for example, masajid [mosques], for example. We need to plan for the next 50-100 years.”

Conversely, Sydney Catholic Schools’ manager and Network Catholic Identity, Dr. Robert Haddad, said overall the religious affiliation numbers for the 2021 Census make very “disturbing reading.”

He said the huge increase in the number of those describing themselves as “no religion” evidences that we are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of upcoming “millennials.”

“For the second census in a row, the number of Catholics has fallen both as a raw number and as a percentage of the Australian population,” he said.

“Unless something dramatic is done, we Catholics and Christians in general, run the risk of becoming an aging and shrinking minority in our own country, putting at further risk our religious freedoms. However, we must resist any temptation to fall back into the ‘bunkerm’ and redouble our efforts to evangelize the culture and emerging generations. We have to promote the faith in ways that are faithful, relevant and joyful all at the same time, which is not an easy task, but definitely a necessary one.”

So what will Australia’s 2026 Census reveal? At this point, the outcome seems painfully predictable.

A further shunning of the foundational pillar of Christianity sounds another death knell for Australia.

How responsible is the Royal Commission into Institutionalized Child Sexual Abuse for the movement away from Catholicism and Christianity? I have no doubt there is a correlation, as there should be.

My concern is that as Aussies turn farther from God, they will gravitate toward wokeism and antisemitism, both of which run hand in hand with godlessness.

==============================================================

On Being a Christian in Islam > Bogus blasphemy claim in Karachi; Egyptian police arrested Christian victims of Muslim attack

 

Pakistan: Muslim mob traps Christians in their homes, stones police vehicles over bogus ‘blasphemy’ claim

Jul 12, 2026 9:00 am By Robert Spencer6 Comments

As we have seen with Muslim mobs in Pakistan, the mere allegation is enough. No actual proof is required.

Protest Erupts in Pakistan after Christian Framed for ‘Blasphemy’

Morning Star News, July 10, 2026:

LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – A violent protest erupted in Karachi, Pakistan on Thursday (July 9) after unidentified persons mailed a desecrated page of the Quran to a Muslim shopkeeper along with photographs of a Christian and his mother, sources said.

Asif Bastian, a Karachi-based Christian rights advocate, said the envelope was delivered to Waleed General Store in Qazafi Colony, Baldia Town. It contained a burnt page of the Quran, photographs of 40-year-old Catholic Azeem Javaid and his mother, and an image of her national identity card.

“As news of the alleged desecration spread, several hundred Muslims, including activists from religious parties, gathered outside the street where Javaid’s home is located and began protesting,” Bastian told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “Around 10 to 15 Christian families live on that street, and they were effectively trapped inside their homes.”

The protesters hurled stones at police vehicles after officers arrived at the scene, forcing an initial withdrawal, Bastian said. The Sindh Province government deployed paramilitary Rangers alongside additional police to bring the situation under control.

“The government’s timely intervention prevented what could have become a major tragedy,” he said. “After officials assured protest leaders that police would conduct a thorough investigation and examine CCTV footage from the Saddar Post Office, where the envelope was reportedly mailed, the demonstration was called off.”

Bastian said authorities later used an armored police vehicle to evacuate Javaid’s family to a secure location.

A source close to the family, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident appeared to be an attempt to falsely implicate Javaid in a blasphemy case or incite a mob attack against him.

“Javaid has a stable job and has never been involved in any religious controversy,” the source said. “He has had financial disputes with some individuals, so it is possible someone sought to frame him. It defies logic that a Christian would desecrate the Quran and then mail the material, along with his own photograph, to a shop directly across from his house. No one would deliberately implicate themselves in such a serious offense.”

The source said the family remains under police protection at an undisclosed location. Javaid, who was at work when the incident occurred, has also gone into hiding while authorities investigate the case….

So far, this seems like an unusually good response from police and Rangers.

 

Egypt: Muslim mob assaults Christians as it attacks church, police arrest the Christians

Jul 14, 2026 3:00 pm By Robert Spencer7 Comments

The police freed them only after they abandoned their complaint against the Muslims who attacked them. As in Pakistan and elsewhere, Christians in Egypt can expect no sympathy or protection from authorities. If Muslims victimize them, those authorities will all too often side with the people who are doing the victimizing, as a Muslim will know that if he defends Christians against Muslims, he will face opprobrium (and possibly violence) from his fellow Muslims. Also, Muslim police officers know that the Qur’an tells Muslims to be “ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another.” (48:29)

Egyptian police vehicle, cattan2011, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

Police arrest Christian victims after attack on Coptic church

by Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post, July 12, 2026:

Egyptian police arrested four Christian men who had been assaulted by a mob during an attack on a Coptic place of worship in Egypt, and freed them two days later once they abandoned the complaint they lodged against those who beat them.

The attack took place in the Upper Egyptian village of Tal Al-Quiblya in Minya Province on Wednesday, according to the United Kingdom-based religious freedom advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), citing the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

A crowd of Muslim residents, most of them women, children and teenagers, reportedly pelted the building with stones while chanting sectarian abuse.

Several Christians suffered injuries. Witnesses on the ground say that the structure and the priest’s car had been damaged.

Officers arrived rapidly and restored order, though only after taking the four Christian men into custody. Their release came on Friday, conditioned on the withdrawal of their complaint against the attackers.

An unknown number of Muslim residents were also arrested….

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged that Egypt be added to the State Department’s Special Watch List, which marks states that have carried out or tolerated grave abuses of religious freedom.

Prosecutors have used the country’s blasphemy statutes against people for voicing or defending their beliefs, imposing anything from fines to jail….

On Being a Christian in Pakistan > Two Christian boys shot by muslims in Pakistan, one died; Christian humiliation in Pakistan

The title of the 2nd story on this post has been altered to bring it in line with community standards. 

Pakistan: Muslims open fire on two Christian boys,

killing one of them

May 29, 2026 1:00 pm By Robert Spencer

14 Comments

Compounding the fear and uncertainty of the Christian community is the fact that they know that authorities will not be on their side, and they cannot assume that the perpetrators will be apprehended and that justice will be done. Authorities are all too often sympathetic to those who attack the Christians, and so there is no justice for the victims.

Fear and Persecution Grip Pakistan’s Christian Community

After Deadly Peshawar Shooting

by Sardar Mushtaq Gill, Pakistan Christian Post, May 27, 2026 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

PESHAWAR: Fear and uncertainty continue to spread among Pakistan’s Christian minority following the tragic death of an 18-year-old Christian youth who succumbed to injuries sustained in a deadly shooting incident in Peshawar.

According to local residents, Silas, son of Ejaz and a resident of Father Colony in Peshawar, died on Wednesday after battling critical gunshot wounds for several days. The attack reportedly occurred when unidentified armed men opened fire on two Christian boys a few days earlier, leaving both seriously injured.

Silas remained under treatment following the attack, but his condition deteriorated due to the severity of his injuries. His death has deeply shaken the local Christian community, where many believe minorities continue to face increasing violence, harassment, and intimidation in different parts of Pakistan.

Residents of Father Colony described the incident as another painful example of the insecurity faced by Christians in the country. Community members expressed grief and anger, saying repeated attacks on minorities are often met with silence and an inadequate response from authorities and political leaders….

 

‘Every Sunrise Brings Fresh Humiliation for Pakistani Christians

May 31, 2026 12:00 pm By Faraz Pervaiz RoshanLeave a Comment

The problems that Pakistani Christians have to face with every sunrise emanate from the moral paralysis of all too many Muslims — their ignorance, oppression, injustice, bigotry, hypocrisy, stubbornness, lowly thinking, and vulture-like behavior.

Despite this, Muslims today go around the whole world raising a clamor about how there is no religion as excellent as Islam, and that it has also bestowed the best rights, status, and rank upon non-Muslims. Or they raise the same clamor that Islam is a religion of tolerance and forbearance which commands good treatment even with kafirs, whereas the reality on the ground is exactly the opposite of this.

The true teachings of Islam are filled with malice, hatred, contempt, and discriminatory inferior treatment full of killing and plundering towards non-Muslim kafirs — Christians, Jews, and Hindus. Whoever does not accept Islam has been trained to be humiliated and disgraced at every step.

Today, Muslim scholars and preachers cover up all these hateful true Islamic teachings and wrap themselves in an apparent and false cloak of morality and character in front of others. The purpose of this apparent garb is nothing except that those who are not aware of the real false teachings of Islam should become impressed by this apparent morality and fall into the trap of Islam.

Therefore, in this connection, it is necessary to bring forward the teachings of Islam that are filled with hatred and malice towards others. Even many Muslims themselves are not aware of these teachings today; otherwise, they are so disgusting that revealing this face of Islam is enough even for any justice-loving Muslim.

Christians Demonstration Pakistan, VOA, Public domain

Allah’s Curse Is Upon the Kafirs

The god of the Quran has bestowed another honor upon the kafirs by saying: “So the curse of Allah is upon the disbelievers.” (Al-Baqarah: 89)

Not only the curse of Allah alone, and not only upon the living kafirs, but even regarding those kafirs who have passed away from the world, it is said:

“Those who disbelieved and died while they were disbelievers — upon them is the curse of allah and the angels and all mankind.” (Al-Baqarah: 161)

Those who believe in such teachings and consider them their faith accuse others that non-Muslims harbor hatred towards them. By no means! It is the hearts of the Muslims that, under the influence of these hateful Islamic teachings, knowingly or unknowingly, are filled with hatred and contempt against every non-Muslim kafir.

Protection of a Muslim’s Life for Killing a Non-Muslim

In an Islamic state, a non-Muslim kafir will also have this right and status that if a Muslim kills him, the Islamic state, which believes in life for life in cases of murder, can never impose the death penalty on that Muslim killer in exchange for that kafir.

Accordingly, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had advised Ali, which he had written down. In it, this command was also present: “A believer will not be killed for a kafir.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, Kitab al-Diyat, Bab iqad al-Muslim min al-kafir, Hadith 4530)

Therefore, let no non-Muslim ever forget that in an Islamic state, any decision regarding even his life will not be made at the level of equality. Similarly, a Muslim should be confident that if any non-Muslim kafir dies at his hands, he should consider his own life completely safe and secure.

Kafirs Are Worse Than Animals

The Quran, while describing the status and rank of those who do not accept Islam — the kafirs — states: “These people are like cattle, rather they are even more misguided than them. It is they who are heedless.” (Al-A’raf: 179)

The famous commentator and Imam Ibn Kathir has written in the tafsir of this verse:

“And whoever commits kufr (disbelief), he is an animal, rather worse than an animal.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, translated, Volume 2, Page 438, Maktaba Islami, Lahore)

Similarly, in another verse it is said: “Do you think that most of them hear and understand? By no means! They are like cattle, rather they are even more astray from the path.” (Al-Furqan: 44)

Thus, the first honor bestowed upon those who do not accept the invitation of Islam is that their very humanity is denied, and they are declared to be like animals, rather worse than them. Not only are they declared worse than some specific animals, but they are declared worse than all creatures and living beings.

Accordingly, the Quran states: “And the worst of living creatures in the sight of allah are those who disbelieve and do not believe.” (Al-Anfal: 55)

Kafirs Are Impure and Unclean

The Quran has declared regarding non-Muslim polytheists:

“O you who believe! The mushrikin (polytheists) are completely najis (impure).” (At-Tawbah: 28)

Look at this hateful teaching of the Quran that those who do not accept the concept of Tawhid are declared impure and unclean. The majority of Muslim scholars believe that such people are dirty and impure in their inner self, but their bodies are not impure. However, some scholars who take the apparent words of the Quran as their proof consider even the bodies of kafirs to be impure. So much so that if a Muslim shakes hands with a kafir, he should wash his hand. Ibn Kathir has written:

“This verse is also proof of the impurity of the mushrikin… As for whether the body and person of the mushrikin is impure or not, the majority say it is not, because Allah has made the slaughter of the People of the Book lawful. Some Zahiris say that the bodies of the mushrikin are also impure. Hasan says: Whoever shakes hands with them should wash his hand.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, translated, Vol. 2, pp. 549-550, Maktaba Islami, Lahore)

Fight the Kafirs Until They Pay Jizya in a State of Humiliation

The Quran, inciting and creating hatred against those who do not accept Islam, says:

“Fight those who do not believe in allah and the Last Day, who do not declare unlawful what allah and his Messenger have declared unlawful, and who do not accept the true religion — from among those who were given the Scripture — until they pay the jizya with their own hands while they are humiliated.” (At-Tawbah: 29)

Ibn Kathir has explained this verse: “So (Allah) says: Do not leave them until they pay the jizya with humiliation and degradation by their own hands.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, translated, Vol. 2, p. 550, Maktaba Islami, Lahore)

These are the teachings because of believing in them and acting upon them that Islam remains a continuous danger for the followers of other religions or other non-Muslims. The Quran has commanded the Muslims that as long as the kafirs do not accept faith and do not accept the halal and haram imposed by Islam, the Muslims should continue to fight them until the Muslims force these non-Muslims to pay jizya in a state of humiliation and degradation. Therefore, Muslims not only extort protection money in the name of jizya by threatening the followers of other religions with fighting and killing, but also give them the title of being humiliated.

Accordingly, the famous Islamic warrior companion Khalid bin Walid wrote a letter to the people of Persia, in which it was stated:

“We invite you to Islam. If you refuse, then pay the jizya with your own hands while you are humiliated, because with me are such people who love fighting in the way of Allah as the Persians love wine.” (Hakim: 299/3, Tabarani al-Kabir: 105/4, Musnad Ali bin al-Ja’d: Hadith 2304, Majma’ al-Zawa’id: 310/5, Imam Haythami declared this hadith hasan in Majma’ al-Zawa’id.)

The Quran spoke of taking jizya while considering non-Muslims humiliated, but Muhammad also made it obligatory that if any of those Muslims who consider them humiliated passes by them while traveling, they will host him for three days.

Accordingly, it is narrated from Abu al-Huwayrath: “Muhammad had made it obligatory upon the Christians of Aylah to pay three hundred dinars every year, and he had also made it obligatory that any Muslim who passes by them, they will host him for three days, and they will not deceive any Muslim.” (Musnad Imam Shafi’i, Part Four, Kitab al-Asir wa al-Fida’, Bab Darb al-Jizyah, Hadith 1771, Musannaf Abdur Razzaq: Hadith 10092, Al-Sunan al-Kubra lil-Bayhaqi: 19/9)

The second Caliph of the Muslims, Umar, added to this that if Muslims pass by them, these kafirs will not only host them for three days but will also be bound to provide for their other necessities of life.

Umar bin al-Khattab fixed four dinars on those who pay in gold and forty dirhams on those who pay in silver as jizya, along with the necessities of life of the passing Muslims and three days of hospitality. (Mishkat al-Masabih, Kitab al-Jihad, Bab al-Jizyah, Hadith 4041, Muwatta Imam Malik: 1/279, Hadith 623)

These forced hospitalities and humiliating treatment of non-Muslims will not end here, but Muslims have been permitted that if non-Muslims refuse these unnecessary forced hospitalities, they should take this “Islamic right” of hospitality by force.

Uqbah bin Amir narrates: I said: O Messenger of allah! When we pass by a people, they neither offer us hospitality nor fulfill the right that is upon them, and we also do not take our right from them by force. The Muhammad said: “If they refuse and you have to take it by force, then take it by force.” (Mishkat al-Masabih, Kitab al-Jihad, Bab al-Jizyah, Hadith 4040, Sunan Tirmidhi: Hadith 1589)

================================================================================================