A nun in Syria looks up to a crucifix disfigured by jihadist attacks. photo provided to csi
Commentary by Joel Veldkamp
This commentary was originally published in CSI’s 2024 Annual Report.
In September 2023, the dictatorship of Azerbaijan ruthlessly ethnically cleansed the ancient Armenian Christian land of Nagorno Karabakh. In doing so, Azerbaijan not only destroyed one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, but also made a mockery of international law, violated a tri-party ceasefire agreement, and permanently buried a 30-year-long peace process that had been shepherded by Russia, France, and the United States.
Armenians who had sat across the negotiating table from Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev were kidnapped by Azerbaijani forces and today sit in dungeons in Azerbaijan. Aliyev did not shy away from this reality. He boasted about it: “We proved that there is a military solution to the conflict.”
In today’s world, the illusion of an “international rules-based order” is giving way to the grisly reality of a world governed by the principle “might makes right.” A new great power conflict between the U.S. and Russia has led to proxy wars and international conflicts across the world. And a growing number of states are taking advantage of the disorder and reaching for “military solutions” to their grievances.
Ideal climate for persecution
These conflicts have created an ideal climate for persecution. In conflict zones, persecutors take advantage of weakened government power to attack Christians and other minorities. Worse yet, some of these persecutors, particularly jihadist and Islamist groups, receive support from the great powers, who seek to use them for their own ends.
In Sudan, two warring Islamist factions, backed by Iran and the United Arab Emirates respectively, have created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. In Bangladesh, competition between China and the U.S. helped lead to the downfall of a secular government in August 2024. A wave of Islamist attacks on Christians and religious minorities followed. In Nicaragua, a Russian-backed authoritarian regime is waging unrestrained war on the church, which it sees as a threat to its power. Across the Sahel region of west Africa, jihadist groups are taking advantage of the American-Chinese-Russian rivalry to spread their influence. Hundreds of Christians were massacred in 2024 in Burkina Faso alone.
In Armenia, West Papua, Myanmar, Nigeria’s Middle Belt, Manipur in India and the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, embattled Christian communities face the very real possibility of armed attacks leading to their extinction. Everyday persecution is also increasing in states like Pakistan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, where the governments find less and less reason to respect international human rights norms and are trying to bolster their own power with appeals to religious nationalism.
The rise of a new power
Most disturbingly, the protracted struggle between Russia and the U.S. is facilitating the rise of a new great power – an axis of Muslim states led by the Republic of Turkey. With the destruction of Nagorno Karabakh and the overthrow of Syria’s Russian-backed dictatorship by Turkish-backed rebels, the Turkish zone of influence now stretches from the borders of Israel all the way to China.
Turkey’s president Recep Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party dream of rebuilding a Turkish-led Islamic caliphate. As Turkish power advances, so does the disappearance of Christians from the Middle East.
Shrinking space for civil society
Meanwhile, the space for genuine civil society movements is steadily shrinking. Far from empowering everyday citizens, social media, AI, and other communications technologies have undermined traditional institutions and created a confusing and atomized public square, which is easily dominated by states and wealthy actors. Today, the NGO space is inundated by organizations funded or created by the great powers.
We must admit that the current world outlook is grim. But we can take comfort from the fact that the Bible teaches us to expect scenarios like this. The prophet Daniel portrayed the empires of his day as enormous beasts, striving with each other for power and trampling on the saints. Daniel also showed us how this struggle will end: with the victory of the kingdom of God.
As Christians, we are ambassadors of this coming kingdom. And the current chaos offers us an opportunity to demonstrate the love, grace and truth which is the true power of this kingdom.
For this reason, we are more convinced than ever that genuine, and genuinely Christian, civil society organizations like Christian Solidarity International have a crucial role to play in our world. Thanks to your support, we are able to connect Christians and others of goodwill in the Western world to Christians and religious minorities enduring persecution. We provide support to meet their physical needs, and we in turn learn from their experience, and receive a message to carry to the powers.
Despite the darkness, we move forward in faith.
