British Foreign Minister: Christianity “At Risk of Disappearing” Due to Genocide

According to a new report commissioned by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Christianity is under unprecedented threat in certain parts of the world and facing near “genocide” levels thanks to religious persecution.

Hunt blamed political correctness for blinding the West to this crisis, seeing as how many of the problem areas are in the Muslim-controlled Middle East. And, you know, since we can never criticize Islam without fear of being called bigots (or being blown to kingdom come), the tragedy continues unabated.

From the BBC:

The interim report said the main impact of “genocidal acts against Christians is exodus” and that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East.

It warned the religion “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.

“Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity,” the Bishop wrote.

“In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.”

In remarks to the press, Hunt said that the devastating terror attacks in Sri Lanka had perhaps startled the world into realizing what was really happening to Christians throughout the globe.

“I think there is misplaced worry that it is somehow colonialist to talk about a religion that was associated with colonial powers rather than the countries that we marched into as colonizers,” he said. “What we have forgotten in that atmosphere of political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are some of the poorest people on the planet.”

The author of the report, Bishop Philip Mounstephen, said in a statement that while he knew that Christian persecution was an ongoing problem, he was not prepared for the grim reality of the situation.

“Through my previous experience of the global church in Asia and Africa I was aware of the terrible reality of persecution, but to be honest in preparing this report I’ve been truly shocked by the severity, scale, and scope of the problem,” he said. “It forces us in the West to ask ourselves some hard questions, not the least of which is this: Why have we been so blind to this situation for so long?”

The real question is whether it will actually “force” us to do anything of the kind, or if we will continue to use political correctness as a shield behind which we ignore the spreading tragedy.