World Watch List 2013:
Worldwide 100 million Christians are persecuted for their faith in Jesus.
Every year, Open Doors publishes the World Watch List, illustrating the countries where Christians are most persecuted. The Open Doors World Watch List is the only annual survey of religious liberty conditions of Christians around the world. It measures the degree of freedom of a Christian to live out their faith in five areas of life - private, family, community, congregation and national life, plus a sixth element measuring the degree of violence.
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In 2012, Christians in Nigeria, Iraq and Syria experienced the most violence, closely followed by those in Sudan and Columbia. In Eritrea, Myanmar, Kenya and Egypt the levels of anti-Christian violence were also extremely high.
North Korea remains the most nightmarish state in which to practice Christianity in the world today, taking out the top spot for the 11th year in a row. However, the 2013 Open Doors World Watch List also highlights the most significant persecution trend of 2012 as a rise of Islamism in every country that experienced the Arab Spring. This has resulted in massively increased pressure on large parts of the church in the Middle East and North Africa.
The trends are not uniformly gloomy however. In the Far East, with the exception of North Korea, the communist states have all marginally improved their treatment of Christians. Laos, Vietnam and China have all moved down the list.
Dropping out of the list this year, for various reasons, are Chechnya, Turkey, Cuba, Belarus and Bangladesh.
Click countries below to view profiles of the top 10
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