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Easter isn\u2019t all new clothes, gorgeous masses in stunning church buildings and arguments about red shoes and foot washing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In some places, Calvary is present in the lives of the people. The Church itself and all its Christian people hang on the cross of persecution.<\/strong><\/p>\n In other places, such as the United States and Great Britain, society is moving along the continuum toward violent persecution.<\/strong> Christians in those two countries have come to expect and accept that they will be subjected to hate speech against Christians, Christian-bashing on web sites. They are increasingly being forced to accept that they face growing legal discrimination against Christians and moves to force Christian speech and expression out of the public sphere. We are at the \u201cyou can go to church all you want, but leave it there,\u201d phase of discrimination, and this discrimination is rapidly becoming government-enforced.<\/p>\n At the same time, Christians in Egypt fear being kidnapped with no police support to stop it. Christians in Bangladesh have their children stolen and trafficked and again, the police do not punish the traffickers. Christians in North Korea are imprisoned and worked to death. Christians in Nigeria are murdered, tortured and their churches are burned.<\/p>\n I could go on. But there is too much of it for one post.<\/p>\n Here is this week\u2019s roundup of Christian persecution in Six Quick Takes.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Nigeria: Easter Attacks Kill 80, Thousands of Christians Flee to the Hills\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n By BosNewsLife Africa Service \u2013 \u201cNigerian Christians appealed for prayers Tuesday, April 2, after Easter season violence in troubled central Nigeria left as many as 80 people dead and displaced some 4,500 others.<\/p>\n At least 19 people were killed since Easter Sunday when gunmen believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders attacked the mostly Christian Atakar group in Kaura district, a remote area of Kaduna state, officials said.<\/p>\n Witnesses said the attacks on three communities, including the Mafang and Zilang villages, killed many women and children. Kaduna police spokesman Aminu Lawan told reporters his forces were still investigating.<\/p>\n Ataka Christians live near Plateau state where authorities claimed fighting between cattle herders, who are mainly Fulani Muslims, and Christian villages killed nearly 60 people in recent days.<\/p>\n The area is on the uneasy dividing line between Nigeria\u2019s predominantly Muslim north and largely Christian south\u2026<\/p>\n Christians said that following Sunday\u2019s violence, thousands of villagers fled to the nearby hills. (Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 2. Bangladesh: Christian Children Re-Captured By Trafficker<\/strong><\/p>\n Eleven of the 16 Christian children who were rescued from Muslim traffickers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Jan. 2 have again gone missing. Sources in the Christian community, as well as reports in local newspapers, report that they believe the children were re-trafficked and taken to madrassas, Islamic training centers, where they will likely be forced to convert to Islam and study the Quran.<\/p>\n Eleven Christian children, originally from the Rangamati district of Chittagong Hill Tracts, disappeared for the second time earlier this year after being given back to the custody of their parents. \u201cWe were not aware that our child would be taken to a madrassa,\u201d\u00a0one parent told International Christian Concern (ICC).<\/p>\n The children, along with five others, had been rescued by police from a madrassa in the Abuzor Giffari Mosque Complex in Dhaka. The children had been missing for months. They were returned to their parents soon after their rescue, but traffickers continually threatened the parents until the recent re-disappearance of the children. Local authorities say the children were likely trafficked again to madrassas and are concerned that they will be forcibly converted to Islam.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [leader] of the traffickers gives a large sum of money to the traffickers to take the kids to the madrassa,\u201d\u00a0said an ICC source.\u00a0\u201cBecause of this, they threatened the parents and took their children, again, to a madrassa. It is all because of large sums of money, and because there are no punishments for the trafficker.\u201d (Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 3. North Korea: \u00a0Number 1 for Christian Persecution<\/strong><\/p>\n North Korea is the most hostile place for Christians around the globe,\u00a0 according to the annual \u201cWorld Watch\u201d list from the\u00a0Open Doors Organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n The list ranks the 50 countries where Christian persecution is most severe. North Korea tops the 2013 list, thus holding its ranking for the eleventh year running.<\/p>\n \u201cChristians are classified as hostile and face arrest, detention, torture, even public execution,\u201d the Open Doors report said. (Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4. Great Britain: Majority of Church-Going Christians Feel Persecuted and Marginalized<\/strong><\/p>\n Over two-thirds of Christians in the United Kingdom feel part of a victimized minority, and David Cameron is making that worse by redefining marriage, the Coalition for Marriage says.<\/p>\n In a new poll commissioned by the group, almost eight in 10 said the prime minister\u2019s\u00a0same-sex marriage<\/strong>\u00a0plan will lead to those who back traditional marriage facing the sack.<\/p>\n More than two-thirds (67 percent) said they felt part of a \u201cpersecuted minority.\u201d<\/p>\n Marginalized<\/strong> Colin Hart, campaign director of the Coalition for Marriage, said the poll showed \u201cwidespread and continued opposition towards David Cameron\u2019s plans to redefine marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cMore worryingly it shows how Christians and those of faith are being treated like illegal aliens in their own country. They are being marginalized and persecuted for their beliefs. (Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Egypt: C<\/strong>hristians Targeted for Kidnappings<\/strong><\/p>\n MATAI, Egypt<\/span>\u00a0(AP) \u2014 Ezzat Kromer\u2019s resistance to his kidnappers did not last long. One of the masked gunmen fired a round between his feet as he sat behind the wheel of his car and said with chilling calm, \u201cThe next one will go into your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n The Christian gynecologist says he was bundled into his abductors\u2019 vehicle, forced to lie under their feet in the back seat for a 45-minute ride, then dumped in a small cold room while his kidnappers contacted his family over a ransom.<\/p>\n For the next 27 hours, he endured beatings, insults and threats to his life, while blindfolded, a bandage sealing his mouth and cotton balls in his ears.<\/p>\n Kromer\u2019s case is part of a dramatic rise of\u00a0kidnappings<\/span>\u00a0targetingChristians<\/span>, including children, in\u00a0Egypt<\/span>\u2018s southern province of Minya, home to the country\u2019s largest concentration of Christians but also a heartland for Islamist hard-liners.<\/p>\n The kidnappings are mostly blamed on criminal gangs, which operate more freely amid Egypt\u2019s collapse in security since the 2011 fall of autocrat\u00a0Hosni Mubarak<\/span>.<\/p>\n Crime has risen in general across Egypt, hitting Muslims as well. But the wave of kidnappings in Minya has specifically targeted Christians, and victims, church leaders and rights activists ultimately blame the atmosphere created by the rising power of hard-line Islamists.<\/p>\n They contend criminals are influenced by the rhetoric of radical clerics depicting Egypt\u2019s Christian minority as second-class citizens and see Christians as fair game, with authorities less likely to investigate crimes against the community.<\/p>\n Over the past two years, there have been more than 150 reported kidnappings in the province \u2014 all of them targeting Christians, according to a top official at the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police. (Read the rest here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n 6. United States: Pro Life Student Group Banned at Johns Hopkins University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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\nThe survey also showed that over half of the U.K.\u2019s Christians who voted Conservative in 2010 would \u201cdefinitely not\u201d do so again in 2015.<\/p>\n\n
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