Also included in this issue:

Along paths of Prayer and Fellowship # 017

North Korea Tops Open Doors’ World Watch List

For the first time, North Korea has replaced Saudi Arabia as the country where Christians are most severely persecuted, according to the “World Watch List” released on Aug. 12 by Open Doors. The semi-annual World Watch List ranks countries according to the level of persecution Christians face for following Jesus Christ.

For years, Saudi Arabia has held the top spot on the list. The desert kingdom, which sees itself as the guardian of Islam and its sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, requires all its citizens to be Muslims. A Saudi who converts to another religion faces the death penalty for apostasy.

But growing evidence of severe oppression in North Korea has confirmed what many observers have believed for years, that the communist dictatorship of Kim Jong Il stops at nothing to eradicate all belief systems other than the worship of Kim himself and his deceased father, Kim Il Sung. Both father and son have made every attempt to purge the land of Christians.

Ranked third on the list is the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, where government authorities accuse Christians of causing religious division. Officials make every effort to tightly control Christian activities, including holding indoctrination classes to re-educate believers.

Vietnam, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia round out the top ten, listed respectively in order of their ranking. Six of the top ten countries are governed by Islamic regimes. One - Bhutan - is predominately Buddhist, and three - Laos, Vietnam and Turkmenistan - are communist-ruled.

Included on the list, from Nos. 11-25, are: Iran, China, Sudan (government controlled areas), Myanmar (Burma), Egypt, Azerbaijan, Nigeria (North), Yemen, Comoros, Colombia, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Brunei and Morocco. China is home to possibly the world’s largest number of Christians, numbering between 60-90 million with an estimated 10,000-25,000 converts a day.

Rounding out the list are Nos. 26-50: Tunisia, Iraq, Russian Federation (the Muslim republics of Chechnya, Kabardino, Balkarya and Dagestan), Libya, Tajikistan, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Turkey, Mexico (State of Chiapas), United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Kurdistan, Oman, Mauritania, Algeria, Malaysia, Syria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Kenya (Northeast) and Belarus.