Persecution of Christians

Persecution of Christians can be traced both historically and in the current century. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith, at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land early Christianity was distributed across. This continued from the 1st century until the early 4th, when the religion was legalized by the Edict of Milan, eventually becoming the State church of the Roman Empire. Michael Gaddis wrote:

The Christian experience of violence during the pagan persecutions shaped the ideologies and practices that drove further religious conflicts over the course of the fourth and fifth centuries... The formative experience of martyrdom and persecution determined the ways in which later Christians would both use and experience violence under the Christian empire. Discourses of martyrdom and persecution formed the symbolic language through which Christians represented, justified, or denounced the use of violence."

Christian missionaries as well as the neophytes that they converted to Christianity have been the target of persecution, many times to the point of being martyred for their faith. There is also a history of individual Christian denominations suffering persecution at the hands of other Christians under the charge of heresy, particularly during the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

In the 20th century, Christians have been persecuted by Muslim groups, and by atheistic states such as the USSR and North Korea. Currently (as of 2012), as estimated by the Christian missionary organisation Open Doors UK, an estimated 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim dominated countries like, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Christians in Pakistan are reportedly being subjected to a genocide by Pakistani Taliban. They also face persecution in atheistic states like North Korea in which there is no religious freedom. A recent study, cited by the Vatican, reported that 75 out of every 100 people killed due to religious hatred were Christian.