Gatestone Institute report finds nearly 200 Christian churches destroyed in swell of violence

The Gatestone Institute released a report Jan. 2 that revealed from August 2014 to October 2014 nearly 200 Christian churches were destroyed in Nigeria by Islamic extremists Boko Haram, displacing more than 190,000 people.

Entitled “Thousand Churches Destroyed in Nigeria,” the report is part of series by Gatestone’s Raymond Ibrahim that covers Muslim persecution of Christians. Ibrahim proposes that this persecution “is not random but systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities and locations.”

The report also states approximately 1,000 Christian churches were destroyed in the last four years by Boko Haram and its sympathizers in Nigeria, a nation that is half Muslim and half Christian.

Gideon Obasogie, the director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese in Borno State, said the Boko Haram’s actions against churches are “sad, heart-aching and potentially dangerous to the territorial integrity and common good of Nigeria. … Where is the freedom?”

An October Human Rights Watch report determined Boko Haram was responsible for killing 2,053 people since the beginning of 2014, a number that likely exceeds the last four years altogether. 

Ibrahim writes in his report, “While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, persecution of Christians is expanding.”

The Center for the Studies of Global Christianity in the United States found that “about 100,000 Christians die every year because of their religious beliefs, that is to say one ever five minutes,” a statistic that seems to correlate with Ibrahim’s beliefs about the expanding persecution of Christians.

The Gatestone report cites numerous examples of Christian persecution from corrupt court proceedings to savage beatings to kidnappings. Ibrahim lists specific examples of Christian persecution from more than 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, Egypt and Germany.  

To read the full report, go to www.gatestoneinstitute.org. Previous monthly reports going back to August 2011 also can be found via links at the end of the report.