Persecution of Christians

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler, for what I am sure will be the first time of many. I commend the hon. Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones), who is a dear friend. Like me, she is an officer of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief; I declare that interest.

I thank all hon. Members who have persistently championed the cause of religious freedom, particularly in relation to persecuted Christians globally. Their unwavering commitment ensures that this critical issue remains at the forefront of our parliamentary discourse. It is imperative that we recognise the alarming escalation in the persecution of Christians worldwide. I have taken the following statistics from a 2023 report by Aid to the Church in Need, which has thoughtfully considered the status of fundamental human rights for all religious traditions.

Some 1.5 million Christians called Syria home before the war started in 2011. Today, that number has plummeted to 300,000, an 80% decline in little over a decade. In Aleppo, the Christian population has dropped from 250,000 to just 30,000—from 12% of the city’s population to a mere 1.4%. In Raqqa, where once there were 11,000 Christians, barely 100 remain today. Deir ez-Zor was once home to 5,000 Christians, but that number has fallen to nearly zero. That tells us all about the decline of Christian faith in Syria. Sadly, we see religious persecution once more being ignored, and Syria is not alone; Nigeria has approximately 3.3 million internally displaced people as a result of religiously motivated violence. Communities have been uprooted and entire cultures have been erased.

I am heartened to support a Government and a Minister who have made significant strides in delivering on the recommendations in the Bishop of Truro’s report. We have seen particular progress on recommendation 2, which calls for the UK to be

“the global leader in championing freedom of religion or belief, ensuring it is given due priority in the UK's engagement in multilateral institutions”.

The UK Government have answered nearly 80 written questions on behalf of religious minorities this year. I extend my sincere thanks to all those who have used their voices to highlight this freedom. It serves as a litmus test for human rights. The liberty to believe in a higher power, to worship and to stand in awe is intrinsic to our humanity. The values imparted by Christianity make the humanitarian efforts of Christian organisations indispensable to the world. For example, one global Christian Church operating in 193 countries and territories has clocked up 6.6 million hours of volunteer work.

Not only are Christian teachings globally relevant, but they hold profound significance here in the United Kingdom. The Bible warns that turning away from God leads to moral decay, manifesting in behaviours such as wickedness, greed and a lack of compassion. Conversely, embracing Christian teachings offers a pathway to healing and restoration within our communities.

In 1 Peter 4:8-10, the apostle Peter says:

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

This is a mindset that builds strong, stable and peaceful societies. Countries that have championed freedom of religion or belief lay the foundation for lasting peace. To those steadfast souls who, in the face of relentless persecution, continue their journey with unwavering faith, I echo the words of Christ in John 16:33:

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I recognise the significance of 2025. Let it be a jubilee year not just in name but in action—a year in which captives and the persecuted find justice, in which those in fear find protection, and in which nations find peace through the promotion of tolerance and interfaith dialogue. That is the sort of country that I want. That is the world that I want. I am sure that everybody here has the same notion.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Shannon]

The issues of human rights abuse and persecution cannot be divorced. If there is persecution, there is human rights abuse; and if there is human rights abuse, there is persecution. Does the hon. Member agree that that is the central focus for us, as Christians? We stand up for everybody: those with religious faith, with no faith, and with different faiths.

[Danny Kruger]

I absolutely agree. It is of course not just Christians who think that, but it is right that in our country we proudly stand on that ground, and defend the right of everybody to absolute freedom of belief. As I said, I think we do that, ultimately, because the foundation of our politics is Christian.

I will refer quickly to the Holy Land, as other hon. Members have. I have become chair of the APPG on Christianity in the Holy Land, which was instigated by our former colleague David Linden, who is a sad loss to the House—at least on this topic, not on others. He encouraged me to take up the role, so I have been having a number of very powerful and moving conversations with Palestinian Christians about the state of the Church in the Holy Land. In fact, I visited many years ago, in the early 2000s during the second intifada, with Canon Andrew White, who was the Church of England’s representative to the Holy Land in those days and a very great man. We visited Bethlehem, and I saw how absolutely desperate the plight of the Church was at that time. As the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Dr Huq) acknowledged, the situation has got worse and the state of the Church in the Holy Land is now very dire. I acknowledge that that is the consequence of Israeli Government activity. I recognise that and, as a strong supporter of Israel, I recognise how hard it is for Christians in the west bank to worship.

On a different trip at around the same time, I visited Iraq with Andrew White, just after the invasion. At that point, we could wander around quite freely. There was a sense that there would be a new flourishing of religious freedom in Iraq. We visited St George’s church, for a service to mark its reopening after the war. It was a wonderful moment, with Iraqi Christians, as well as lots of American and British soldiers, present. It felt like the dawning of something wonderful in Iraq. Of course, within months that church was closed, and many of the Christians we had met were dead. The tragedy of the American-led invasion was that Christianity in Iraq has been severely repressed ever since, and we know about the similar phenomena in Syria and elsewhere since. The tragedy of nation-building in the middle east, often led by Christians, has not been good for the Church.

The principal enemy of Christianity globally is not misapplied western liberalism; it is alternative religions and ideologies, in particular Marxism in China, radical Hinduism in India and, of course, radical Islam all over the world. My right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne) mentioned Nigeria. The situation there is absolutely appalling: 3,000 people a year killed in recent years, and getting on for a quarter of a million people displaced. That is, I think, around half the total global number of those killed and displaced. In Algeria, as the hon. Member for Newport West and Islwyn mentioned, I want to draw particular attention to the Kabyle people, a Berber community in the north of the country who have been resisting the Islamist ideology of the Algerian Government for many years and who have suffered severe persecution. They are attempting self-determination and their slogan is, “In the name of all beliefs”. I want to acknowledge that—going back to my original point—when we defend Christianity, we are defending everybody, and I pay tribute to that campaign.

I want to finish by asserting this point. Christianity is established in the west and therefore we think of it as the dominant philosophy, even though in many ways in our country I do not feel it is anymore. It is the shield of minorities everywhere, and I think we need a stronger promotion of the value of Christianity in every society. We should not simply be defensive in debates like this about defending the status quo and defending Christians; we should be supporting those who promote Christianity, sympathetically of course and always peacefully. The promotion of Christianity is a moral good, because wherever Christianity is, life is better. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). I could not put it better than he did: in an absolute sense, Christianity is good for people.

I pay tribute to Fiona Bruce, the hon. Member for North Northumberland’s predecessor as special envoy—a great friend to many of us and a pioneer in this space in the previous Parliament and over many years for her work promoting religious freedom and belief in this country and around the world. It is a great shame that the Bill she was championing fell before the general election. I do not know whether the hon. Member for North Northumberland would have welcomed it, or if the Government have any intention of reviving the measures proposed in it, which were to establish the position of the envoy on a statutory footing, properly resourced, rather than being something that, as it were, exists at the whim of the Government. I regret that the Bill fell, but I pay tribute to her. I pay tribute particularly to the hon. Member for North Northumberland. It is a tremendous thing that he is now in post; he has a great and important role to do.

Lastly, to end on a note of hope, there are great things happening in the world. Christianity is not oppressed, downtrodden or downcast. We are seeing very positive signs of growth and revival. In China, the house church movement has won many millions of converts. Here in the UK, I am encouraged. There was a report from the Bible Society and Theos recently called, “The Quiet Revival” which demonstrates that, quietly, we are seeing new growth in our faith in the UK. On that basis, I have confidence in the future.