Christians and Jews are the most persecuted religious groups in the world, yet Western media either ignores or downplays the violence and repression, because the biggest ideological culprits are Islam and Communism. Here are multiple important and disturbing stories of Christian persecution you won’t find promoted on lefty mainstream media outlets.
International Christian Concern (ICC) highlighted one story that ought to have elicited much more outrage than it has. The Supreme Court in Minsk, Belarus, rejected an appeal from the Greek Catholic Parish of the Brothers Apostles Saints Peter and Andrew, which means, according to ICC, that all the Greek Catholic parishes in the region are officially liquidated. It's too bad the Vatican is so busy complaining about Israel and Donald Trump instead of focusing on true persecution like the Belarus story.
The background of the liquidation is that the New Religion Law in socialist Belarus required re-registration of all churches to monitor alleged extremism, and in 2025 the Brest Regional Executive Committee claimed, without providing reasons, that multiple Greek Catholic parishes in their area did not meet legal standards. The ICC said on April 16 that the Minsk Supreme Court ruling is final and that multiple court officials, along with Press Secretary Yuliya Lyaskova, refused to provide a comment or explanation. Not only are officials liquidating the parishes and threatening legal action against parishioners who gather together for worship, but they revoked the license of a Polish priest who had invited one of the targeted Greek Catholic priests to his church.
In Nigeria, the persecution is even more extreme, and the government continues to do little or nothing to deal with the terror crisis. A Nigerian priest who serves at one of my local parishes in Arizona today told me how galling it is for him and his people that the terrorists almost always get off "scot-free" after "killing and maiming" Christians.
Related: Suffering and Sanctity: American Christians Must Relearn How to Sacrifice
On April 25, my colleague Robert Spencer reported the heartbreaking news that, of 416 abductees, a faction of Islamic terror group Boko Haram was separating out different groups of captives for sex slavery or execution. One of the terrorists contacted the Borno South Youth Alliance to brag about the abuse of kidnapped victims, apparently as a threat amid government inaction. The terrorists planned to execute between 50 and 60 victims while they allotted 68 women as sex slaves for distribution among their fellow jihadis. Islamic sacred texts endorse sex slavery and murder of non-Muslims. A dozen of the abductees subsequently escaped. It is not clear if any of the 400+ abductees were Christian, but a 2025 report stated that terrorists killed 7,000+ Christians in Nigeria last year, an average of 35 killings a day.
Terrorists killed at least 12 Nigerian Christians on Palm Sunday 2026, and the genocide is so atrocious that even British comedian John Cleese slammed Western media and leaders for almost entirely ignoring the persecution of Nigerian Christians ahead of Easter. A gunman just last week murdered Rev. Ayuba Choji and his wife and children in Plateau state. Whether the 416 abductees were Christian or not, thousands of Nigerian Christians have faced the same situation of kidnapping, rape, and murder.
Iranian Christians, like the Nigerians, live with the daily reality of a bloody Islamic jihadi tyranny. Besides massacring freedom protestors — including ongoing executions — this year, the Islamic regime of Iran also stepped up its persecution of Christians. Converts to Christianity face particularly harsh and even potentially deadly penalties under Iranian sharia.
Here are several more headlines from ICC for more reading on persecution of Christians around the world:
Preacher Found Dead in Russian Prison
A Christian Family in Pakistan Fights for Justice for their Daughter (her rapist claims she's his wife and converted to Islam, though she didn't)
British Police Arrest [Street] Preacher
Ruling Party in Armenia Releases Anti-Church Platform
Christian Truck Driver Killed in Eastern DRC
And please pray for all those Christians who brave prison or death just for professing faith in Jesus.
