The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby Reuters
Christianity Today
Christianity has never felt so threatened as it does now in its historic birthplace of the Middle East, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.
Christians have recently been on the receiving end of persecution both from militantly atheist and religiously intolerant regimes, Justin Welby said today.
"It would not be over-stating matters to say that Christianity is both the numerically largest faith and the most persecuted.
"The historic centre of the Christian Church in the Middle East has never felt so threatened, but is also under attack in countries as diverse as North Korea and Eritrea, where Christians are harassed, imprisoned, persecuted and killed."
Sixty eight years after the United Nations agreed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this situation is intolerable, he said.
"As faith communities we must step up and hold governments to account. This is a challenge for us all everywhere but none-more-so than in countries where faith communities have serious power through numerical, political or civic strength."
In the UK, he added, the Church of England is at the fore in advocating the rights of Muslims to set up schools, madrassahs and mosques across the country.
"But the increasing integration of Muslim communities within British society, in which we rejoice, is in stark contrast to the increasing marginalisation of and outright hostility to Christian communities within many parts of the world, not least in significant parts of the Middle East."
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