According to a report released by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), one in seven Christians is facing severe persecution around the world, Breitbart reports.

“Almost 340 million Christians around the world — or 1 out of every 7 — live in a country where they suffer some form of persecution, such as arbitrary arrest, violence, a full range of human rights violations and even murder,” ACN stated in its annual report.

“The merciless targeting of Christians — driven by hatred of Christians and the faith itself — emerges as a common denominator in hundreds of testimonies of persecution,” the agency added.

ACN also warned the persecution of Christians is on the rise.

The report added that though Christians are primarily persecuted because of their faith other factors can also play a role.

This can include governments that look upon Christianity as a political threat. The report noted that about 4.5 billion people live in totalitarian regimes.

In other parts of the world, Christians are targeted because they have been labeled as a ‘foreign or Western religion’. India is a prime example of this and ACN said that approximately 1.5 billion people live in these types of regimes.

In other parts of the world, such as Islamic countries, there is no tolerance for other religions and Christianity is often the primary focus of the persecution. ACN cited Nigeria, as an example, where Muslim Fulani raiders killed an estimated 7,500 Christians between January 2021 and June 2022. About 1.1 billion people live in Islamic regimes.

READ: Report Decries ‘Merciless Targeting of Christians’ Around the World

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