Following those nations, ICC President Jeff King said in an interview, are India, Iran, China, Pakistan, Eritrea, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Indonesia. The report is online at www.persecution.org, and the group is calling for a day of prayer on Sunday.
Some of the nations are relatively new on the list, while others have had longstanding issues of religious freedom for Christians and others. In Nigeria alone, Mr. King said, 100,000 Christians have died as a result of religious persecution in the past 20 years.
“It’s the numbers of deaths,” he said about Nigeria’s ranking atop the list. In addition, he said an estimated 3.5 million Christian farmers in the country have been displaced or had their farms taken.
Mr. King said the split in Nigeria between a Muslim-dominated north and a Christian-dominated south could lead to a civil war and subsequent displacement of population that would “dwarf any refugee crisis we’ve had in modern history.”