When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021 as the United States and its allies withdrew from the war-torn country after two decades, concerns were instantly heightened that the nation’s already vulnerable Christian population would be subject to abject persecution.
Although tens of thousands of Christians were airlifted out of the destabilized country in a matter of days thanks to the incredible efforts of aid groups, those that remained have largely been forced underground.
The Christian watch group International Christian Concern recently received a video from one of their contacts within Afghanistan depicting the purported beheading of a Christian man at the hands of the Taliban.
The group says that the victim was a friend of the man who sent them the video, which you can view in part here:
Under the previous U.S.-allied regime, Afghanistan was already the second most dangerous country on earth to be a Christian thanks to violent tribal animus, particularly against Muslim converts to Christianity.
“For Christians, though, there were basically no freedoms to lose,” Open Doors USA notes.
In the year since the Islamist Taliban seized control of the majority-Muslim country, Afghanistan has surpassed North Korea on Open Doors’ World Watch List, not due to any decrease in persecution in the aggressively atheist East Asian dictatorship but rather the increase of persecution in Afghanistan, sadly.
Open Doors describes living as an open Christian as “impossible” for Afghans.
“Leaving Islam is considered shameful, and Christian converts face dire consequences if their new faith is discovered. Either they must flee the country or they will be killed,” they explain.
“This was true before the Taliban takeover: the situation has become even more dangerous for believers this year. The Taliban will make sure that Islamic rules and customs are implemented and kept. Christian converts don’t have any option but to obey them.”
The group urges us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, and for “God to make Taliban leaders uphold and preserve human life, and that God would turn their hearts from hate to love.”
Amen.
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