The 2025 Global Persecution Index reported that numerous countries have increased their hostility toward Christians.
“The world is seeing an increasing push toward oppressive control over religion, particularly Christianity, as a consequence of several modern and historical factors converging,” Jeff King, president of the International Christian Concern (ICC), told Fox News. “Christians face oppression in more countries than any other faith group, with significant challenges in regions like the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”
“In many authoritarian states, Christianity is seen as a proxy for Western influence and values, which regimes often reject as imperialistic or destabilizing,” King explained. “Christianity and other faiths emphasize allegiance to a higher moral authority, which inherently challenges authoritarian regimes that demand complete loyalty to the state.”
The report listed “red zone” countries, or those where Christians are killed or tortured for their faith. These countries include North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, DRC, Nigeria, and the Sahel.
The Christian Church in Iran is “one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world,” the report says. issue. “Though still a tiny part of the population, Iranian Christians are proving resilient to the government pressure that surrounds them every day.”
Despite historically having a Christian presence, Nicaragua now has a “newfound antagonism” toward Christianity under the leadership of Daniel Ortega. According to the report, Ortega views Christians as “subversive to his claim to absolute power.”
“As is the case in many communist countries, Nicaragua has come to see religion as an enemy of the state,” the report adds. “Religion, in the communist ideology, is a competing loyalty and creates institutions that amass loyal followings.”
In China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has “long considered religion an existential threat to the state’s authority,” the report notes.
The CCP has sought to exercise control of the churches in China, replacing Christian images with pictures of President Xi Jinping.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said the Chinese government has “implemented the coercive ‘sinicization of religion’ policy, which has fundamentally transformed China’s religious environment.” According to USCIRF’s report, sinicization, or the subordination of religious groups to the CCP’s agenda, has become the “core driving principle of the government’s management of religious affairs.”
“Government officials have installed CCP loyalists as leading religious figures, altered houses of worship with CCP-approved architecture, integrated CCP propaganda into religious doctrines, and otherwise criminalized non-CCP-backed religious activities, all with the goal to ensure the stability of CCP rule,” the report says.
