Many political and social commentators have been recognising that religious belief and expression are increasingly important in our world today, not only in terms of our individual lives but with regards to the shaping of society and even the formation of state policy and law. 

In such a context, it is sobering to think that some religious and ethnic communities are experiencing sharply increased levels of discrimination, exclusion and persecution because of who they are and what they believe. Christians in particular are under threat. Followers of Christ suffer harassment and worse in more countries than ever before. According to the latest Pew Research Center data, Christians suffer harassment and worse in 160 countries — more countries than any other faith group and an increase of 50 countries within 10 years. 

In a 2023 address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican, Pope Francis stated that one in seven Christians around the globe suffer persecution — perhaps 300 million in total. The report Persecuted and Forgotten?, just published by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, shows that persecution of Christians and other minorities has also become a key driver of migration to the West and elsewhere. 

In Iran, for example, there has been an unprecedented growth of Christianity since the Islamist revolution, as ordinary people have sought to satisfy their spiritual need away from the dominant extremist interpretation of Shi’a Islam. While the regime barely tolerates the ancient Christian communities, which do not evangelise, it has unleashed the full force of its wrath on those in the “house churches”, labelling them as being anti-state and a security risk. Their pastors are regularly arrested and imprisoned for varying lengths of time. Jews in Iran are always at risk of being declared “enemies” because a relative may have migrated to Israel. While many have courageously remained in Iran, a large number continue to flee, first to neighbouring lands, like Turkey, but eventually to the West. Britain, particularly, has drawing power. 

To the East, in Pakistan, so-called Blasphemy Laws have had a chilling effect on freedom of speech, with Christians, and other minority communities, regularly falling victim to false accusations of blasphemy either to silence them or because of some personal grudge or interest. Once an allegation is made, the legal and judicial system springs into action and judges, themselves often intimidated by extremists, are pressured into awarding the accused the extreme penalty prescribed by this law. 

The teaching of hate in textbooks — not only in religious studies but in history and the social sciences — heightens tensions among different communities, making peaceful co-existence difficult. The Ahmadiyya, moreover, who have been officially declared “non-Muslim” by the state, have become non-persons, finding it impossible to obtain education or employment. As with Christians, they are constantly in danger of their places of worship and their homes being attacked by frenzied mobs, incited by extremist religious and political leaders. Once again, Christians, Ahmadiyya and others are leaving the country to find asylum in the West. 

To the west of Iran, Yazidis and Christians in Iraq still live in the shadow of the savage attacks by the so-called Islamic State. Their churches and temples were desecrated, their homes looted and their women kidnapped and forced into marriage with the terrorists of IS (this last monstrosity is becoming an endemic aspect of persecution in several parts of the world). Under the protection of the autonomous government of the north, some are bravely going back to their ancestral lands but many have become too disillusioned to remain in Iraq and are leaving in large numbers for western countries. In Syria, similarly, the ideological extremists, battling the Assad regime, have come down hard on religious minorities and many are either leaving or wish to leave. 

This sorry tale can be repeated for the African Sahel and for Nigeria, where Christians and Traditional Religionists are being driven out of their homes either by Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda or IS-related movements. In Afghanistan, the Shi’a Hazara are being persecuted by the fundamentalist Taliban government, as well as by IS. In China, the largely Muslim Uighur are being stripped of their culture and religion, and “underground” Protestants and Catholics continue to have their churches closed down and their leadership arrested or exiled. Many of these tragedies are drivers for emigration, ultimately to the West.

The independent “Truro” report by the then Bishop of Truro, commissioned by Jeremy Hunt, when he was Foreign Secretary, sought to make British diplomatic missions aware of the scale of persecution against Christians, and to assist British aid and diplomacy in addressing and ameliorating the distressing and dangerous situation of many religious and ethnic minorities in so many parts of the world. Since then, there has been a welcome “wind of change” in the Foreign Office in this regard, with diplomats now encouraged to take religious persecution seriously for its own sake but also in terms of British interests, one of which is undoubtedly to reduce the flow of immigration to the United Kingdom. 

Diplomatic policy and the targeting of aid to vulnerable communities … could be a win-win

It is true that in countries like Iran and Afghanistan, what Britain can do is severely limited. In others, on the other hand, like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Iraq, a great deal can be done. As ACN suggests, aid policy should cease to be “faith blind and take actual account of those communities which are marginalised, discriminated against and persecuted. Many of these are religious minorities. Although there is now some awareness in our embassies of the need to help persecuted religious minorities, support for persecuted Christians and other religious minorities was nowhere to be found in the international development strategy of successive governments. This new government must break with the past and add help for oppressed religious minorities to its list of priorities for taxpayer-funded overseas development aid. Direct aid needs channeling to the educational, medical and social uplift initiatives within these Christian and other persecuted communities and those which work with them. Where Britain is providing educational assistance, as in Pakistan, this should be conditional on the rapid removal of hate from the curriculum and textbooks, lest we end up assisting the spread of prejudice and exclusion. Assistance in training for the legal and judicial profession could enable the separation of police registering a case of “blasphemy”, for instance, from further investigation, thus reducing the danger of intimidation from extremist leaders and mobs. This can go hand in hand with diplomacy that encourages proportionality in crime and punishment, especially in sensitive areas like religious offence. 

A feature of the formation of our diplomats must be a fresh recognition that the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities is a major factor in displacing people internally, to neighbouring countries and, ultimately, to Britain.   

Diplomatic policy and the targeting of aid to vulnerable communities could have a significantly beneficial impact on their suffering and also help in reducing immigration flows. It could be a win-win way of exercising whatever influence Britain has left in the area of diplomacy and aid.