Rising Christian Persecution Worldwide: When Faith Becomes a Target
Photos by CBN News
The most persecuted population in the world continues to be those of the Christian faith, where more than 380 million followers of Jesus Christ face intense levels of hostility. In 2024, Open Doors International, an organization that assigns countries a persecution score based on compiled data, reported that 4,476 people were killed for faith-related reasons, 7,679 churches and faith-based buildings were attacked, and 4,744 individuals were imprisoned. In 2025, they found that violence against Christians is increasing.
Then He [Jesus] said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. Luke 21:10-12
Nigerian Crisis
In Africa, where more Christians reside than on any other single continent—and one in five are persecuted—seven of the 10 deadliest countries for Christians lie in the sub-Saharan area: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger, Central Africa Republic, and Mozambique.
Last June, more than 200 Christians were brutally massacred in the village of Yelewata in central Nigeria—and daily killings continue unabated despite President Bula Tinubu’s orders to “crush terrorists responsible for the attacks.” In a recent CBN News interview, Nigerian lawyer and Yelewata native Barr Franc Utoo, passionately shared, “The way they kill our people is in the most horrific, the most gruesome, the most cruel manner anyone could ever think. They will [light a] fire on the house, and then, when you are coming out, they will now hack you down with a machete. So, they cut you as if they're cutting a piece of wood, not even as if they are killing a wild animal. You don't even kill a wild animal that way." Barr Utoo pointed out that the jihadists will chant “Allahu Akbar” while slaughtering their victims. He states that his own government turns their heads, wanting to be “politically correct because the kinsmen of these people are the same people who constitute the top echelon of the Nigerian political structure, business structure, and institutional structure.”
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. James 1:12
In the early morning hours on July 15, over 30 armed Islamic terrorists stormed the community of Bidi Jebu in the Nigerian Plateau State. Davou Musa, pastor of a 300-member congregation, lost nine members of his family who were burned alive in the attack. He stated, “They kicked the door down and marched in, shooting and shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is the greatest). Then they set fire on the building and started shouting, saying they had conquered.” A total of 27 people, including a three-month-old baby and three-year-old toddler, were murdered.
Masara Kim, a reporter for Truth Nigeria, shared on CBN News on July 16, that more than 30 terrorists had swarmed the compound, broke into homes, pouring gasoline on sleeping victims, and setting them on fire. “He [Pastor Musa] could literally hear them screaming [at the top] of their voices and shouting for help,” Masara relayed. “But definitely no one came to their help until they could no longer scream. They could no longer breathe. When I got to that compound at sunrise yesterday, the bodies of these victims were still smoking.” He stated that this is a pattern of violence, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in the last 10 months in the Plateau State alone.
A Nigerian woman cries out after being attacked by Islamic terrorists. Home to over 100 million Christians, believers throughout Nigeria are being persecuted, attacked, tortured, and murdered by jihadist fundamentalists. In one region alone, at least 218 people were killed and 6,000 displaced in June 2025, after Islamic Fulani militants attacked a Christian village.
Two Nigerian Federal Road Safety Corp officials carry a mutilated body. There has been a lack of outcry from the world as well as the Nigerian government.
Christians are laid to rest in a mass burial after Islamic terrorists in the north-central part of the West African country murdered over 60 people.
Nigerians mourn the deaths of believers murdered for their faith in Jesus.
A Nigerian woman is the sole survivor after jihadists attacked her family, killing her husband and three children. Brutally injured and left for dead, she lay still until they left.
Syrian Crisis
Although Syria ranked 18th on Open Doors’ World Watch List, since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the Alawite (previously associated with the Assad regime), Christian, and Druze communities have faced increasingly violent attacks, displacement, and massacres under Syria’s new interim Islamist leader President Ahmed al-Sharaa. He is more widely known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List from 2013 through 2024.
While the Syrian Christian and Druze communities existed long before the rise of Islam in the country, the Islamic regime views their theological differences as a crime worthy of death. Last week, over 1,000 civilians in Syria's southern region of Suwayda were killed in clashes between Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes and Druze sects, displacing more than 130,000 people.
The weekend of July 19, Pastor Khalid Mezher, who led the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda, and 20 family members were victims of a targeted massacre. Pastor Mezher had converted from the Druze faith to Christianity several years ago, and despite rising tensions, continued to serve his city and congregation. The remaining Christians in Suwayda are now scattered, cut off from food, water, electricity, and the internet.
Israeli Druze activist Mansor Ashkar explained that this is an ethnic cleansing by the Syrian government. In a recent interview he revealed, “They made a fatwa which allows all the foreign fighters if they join the fight to go and take Druze women, also Christians if they're in that mountain, as loot of war, as sex slaves. And now we're having more Bedouin tribes and Muslim tribes accompanied by the government soldiers who are flocking into that mountain to butcher and kill anyone alive—Christian and Druze."
Those speaking out against these atrocities are concerned over the lack of coverage by prominent news sources and attention from political leaders around the world. Some have attributed the removal of nations, such as Nigeria, from the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) and lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria as global measures that would have otherwise kept pressure on entities that severely violate international religious freedom.
As many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are persecuted, driven underground, and even martyred for a faith that some take for granted, continue to pray that the joy of the Lord is their strength, that they would continue to shine their light to the lost even under such intense pressure, and that peace would come to their land. As the Lord leads, prayerfully seek to support organizations that have “boots on the ground” ministering to the persecuted Church and advocate for those who have no voice whether through social media platforms, your local church, or governmental agencies.
Islamic Syrian military and security forces round up staff at Sweida Hospital in southern Syria, executing a man in the group.
In a cruel, merciless act, a helpless Druze baby is kidnapped from his mother by Islamic terrorists in Syria.
In clashes between the Druze militias and Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes, dozens of people have been killed in Syria’s Sweida province after Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa took control of the country, ousting then-president Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
Born to a Sunni Muslim family from the Golan Heights, al-Sharaa grew up in Damascus, Syria. Previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani (his war name), he was a jihadist member of Al-Qaeda and designated as a terrorist.
Muslim extremists in Syria terrorize and brutally murder religious minorities from the Christian and Druze communities.
Dressed in black, women mourn the loss of family members barbarically killed by terrorists.
Open Doors International is an organization that assigns countries a persecution score based on compiled data. In 2024, they reported that 4,476 people were killed for faith-related reasons. In 2025, they found that violence against Christians is increasing.
Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17
Thank you for reading! If this story inspired you, we invite you to partner with us in continuing the ministry God started over 26 years ago. We appreciate your prayerful consideration in joining us to reach more souls for Jesus.
SPONSOR MESSAGE: Answers in Genesis is a ministry defending Christianity, focusing on defending the book of Genesis and promoting a biblical worldview. They aim to expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas and their connection to a "4.5 billion-year-old" earth.
Learn more at: AnswersBibleCurriculum.com
© 2025 Calvary Chapel Magazine (CCM). All rights reserved. Articles or photographs may not be reproduced without the written permission of CCM. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.® Used by permission.