BBC Documentary Highlights the Challenges Faced by Christian Missionaries in Islamic Countries

The BBC World Service documentary describes how those who work to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in Islamic countries face the threat of arrest, deportation, aggression and death.

The BBC World Service documentary describes how those who work to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in Islamic countries face the threat of arrest, deportation, aggression and death. In the programme, Christopher Landau, a BBC religious affairs correspondent, gave the missionaries the opportunity to speak about their Christian life and the hardships they face.

Click here to listen to the documentary.

Other recent reports suggest that Christians are increasingly becoming a target in Islamic societies.

This week, the government of Morocco notified 23 foreigners, mostly Christians, that they face deportation from the country imminently.  The government appears fearful that the Muslim population will be converted to Christianity if exposed to Christians.  Another large-scale deportation took place in March 2010 when more than 40 Christian workers were expelled.

On 19 May 2010, Lydia and Anna Hentschel, daughters of German Missionaries aged 5 and 4, were returned home to Germany after being rescued from Islamic kidnappers who had held them for 11 months in Yemen.  The search for their parents, who were working at a missionary hospital in Saada, in the remote north of Yemen close to the border with Saudi Arabia, is still continuing.  The explanation of the Government of Yemen is that the kidnapping was carried out by independent jihadists who saw the Missionaries' attempt to spread Christianity as an affront.  In the months leading up to the kidnapping, its members had begun teaching Christianity to Muslim patients.

On 2 May 2010, a bus carrying 80 Christian students to their university in northern Iraq was bombed.  Since 2003, Iraq’s Christian community has been subjected to assassinations, kidnappings, extortions and rapes. Over half of the estimated 1.5 million Christians in Iraq (less than 4 per cent of the population) have fled to Syria, Jordan and other countries.

On 4 May 2010, a Christian man was killed by an Islamic militant group in Somalia which has reportedly vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity.  Yusuf Ali Nur, 57, a primary school teacher and underground church leader, was shot multiple times at close range.  His wife and three children, ages 11, nine and seven are living in fear of also being killed.

At the end of May 2010, an Afghan parliamentary secretary, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, has called from the parliament floor in Kabul for the public execution of Christians.