The scale of religious persecution around the world is not widely appreciated. Nor is it limited to Christians in the troubled regions of the Middle East. A recent report suggests that attacks are increasing on Yazidis, Jews, Ahmadis, Baha’is and many other minority faiths. And in some countries even more insidious forms of extremism have recently surfaced, which aim to eliminate all types of religious diversity.
We are also struggling to capture the immensity of the ripple effect of such persecution. According to the United Nations, 5.8 million MORE people abandoned their homes in 2015 than the year before, bringing the annual total to a staggering 65.3 million. That is almost equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom.
And the suffering doesn’t end when they arrive seeking refuge in a foreign land. We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith.
It’s good to have high-profile support. And yet this message troubles me. Spot the missing words: Muslim, Islam, jihadist. It may be an uncomfortable truth, but if we look at the persecution mentioned by the prince, nearly all of it is at the hands of Islamist extremists. But to say this would spoil the effect of ‘”let’s all get on together”. To say this would risk charges of Islamophobia. To say this unsayable fact and to mention this unmentionable truth would be to risk charges, bizarrely, of inflaming religious tensions. Until we are prepared to acknowledge publicly what we all know privately, the persecution will increase. Only by mentioning this in public debate will we be able to encourage our own resident Muslim communities to reflect back through their own networks their anger at and repudiation of what is done in their name.