One church is being burned every week in the Muslim world in an “alarming” campaign of Christian persecution, a British charity has warned.
More than 85,000 Christians were targeted in the last year alone, according to Help the Persecuted (HTP), while places of worship are torched “on a weekly basis”.
The charity operates in 15 Islamic countries hostile to Christians, deploying indigenous field teams who understand local political and religious climates to help them find safety.
With attacks on the rise, Tim Osmond, the UK ambassador for the group, has told GB News how “dire” the situation really is.
HTP’s operations vary by country.
In Lebanon, for example, it maintains a larger presence, including safe-houses and farms feeding thousands.
And throughout the nearly two-year-long Israel-Hamas war, its refugee centre sheltered fleeing Christians and others in need.
Out in the field, teams verify persecution cases through churches and direct contact, ensuring accuracy before providing support.
Their support stretches from the targeting of Christian communities to underground churches, lengthy prison sentences and violent mob attacks, which can destroy entire neighbourhoods.
Christian churches have been destroyed in Pakistan and across the Muslim world
HELP THE PERSECUTED
In Pakistan, which Osmond says is “notorious for its blasphemy laws”, locals will “rampage and burn churches, and actually burn the homes of Christians as well.
“Whole streets get torched. The Government doesn’t do anything about it, but we have a team now in Pakistan that can do as much as they can with the resources.”
He added: “It’s a regular occurrence. I would say on a weekly basis, they are attacking churches, mainly burning them, burning everything that’s in them, and then knocking the crosses off the top.
“You’ll get mob. What you’ll get is a mob reaction and mob violence based on false claims of blasphemy.
“So last year, there were a couple of boys who were accused of desecrating a couple of pages in the Quran.
“Someone put the word out, and you probably had about 1,000 angry Muslims rampaging through neighbourhoods, destroying any Christian building, church and home.
“Many homes were burnt out, and they just stole everything that was in them.
“It’s happening all the time.”
But it isn’t just there, Osmond explained.
“In Iran, all the Christians are underground. Basically, it’s the fastest underground Christian church in the world, in Iran, but the prison sentences are going from three to five years to 10 to 15 years now, if they are caught having a house church.”
Afghanistan presents even graver dangers for Christians, particularly converts from Islam. There, HTP says, “you’re dead if you’re found out to be a Christian, especially having converted from Islam”.
On the shores of the Mediterranean, Libya is likened to the Wild West.
“It’s a free-for-all at the moment, especially in Tripoli.
“Libya is horrendous because there are so many different factions there, and people just get put in prison and just disappear in these countries,” Osmond continued.
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul
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The sheer scale of the attacks forces Christians across the Muslim world into hiding, with many facing imprisonment, violence or death for their faith.
Turkey’s treatment of Christian heritage has also drawn concern, particularly regarding Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia.
The historic building, built as an Orthodox Christian cathedral in the 6th century before becoming a mosque after the 1453 Ottoman conquest, has seen its Christian elements systematically covered up under President Recep Erdogan’s rule.
“Quite a lot of the Christian paintings up on the ceiling have just been covered up by banners or by great big circles with Arabic writing on them.
“I actually don’t know what they mean, but they’ve been trying to cover up everything,” Osmond said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has undertaken a systematic campaign of covering up Christianity at the Hagia Sophia
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Asked why the cover-up is underway in Turkey, Osmond said: “Erdogan has got rid of everyone that was going to challenge him”.
“Quite recently, he arrested the mayor of Istanbul, which caused lots of problems, because he was his closest ally. And Erdogan wants his caliphate, so that’s what he’s working for.”
But HTP has pointed to a glimmer of light in the darkness: Egypt’s St Catherine’s Monastery, one of Christianity’s oldest holy sites.
There had been concerns about the monastery from campaigners and former site workers.
John Grainger, who was site manager from 1994 to 2002, told GB News: “Egypt’s Government has ignored multiple recommendations made in a UN-Habitat-commissioned environmental review.
“It is acting in clear defiance of environmental laws relating to the nation’s natural protectorates and communities within them, as well as in violation of its obligations under the Unesco World Heritage Convention, most recently a 2023 notice to urgently halt construction at St Catherine’s – all with a purpose to create facts before the international community will take notice.”
Saint Catherine’s Monastery was set to close
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Following an Egyptian court ruling which ordered Orthodox monks to vacate plots of land like vineyards and gardens next to the monastery, both Egypt and Greece moved to protect it.
“We agreed in the immediate future to work towards safeguarding the rights of the monastery, as well as its legal status,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis announced after meeting Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.
The monastery, founded in the 6th century at the base of Mount Sinai, holds significance for Christians, Muslims and Jews as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry later confirmed monks would maintain access to the monastery and its religious sites, while both nations pledged to preserve the Unesco World Heritage site’s “Greek Orthodox character of worship” and spiritual value.
Church of the Holy Mother of God ‘Joy Of All Who Sorrow’ destroyed by Russian shelling on April 18, 2025 in Bohorodychne, Ukraine
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PICTURED: A church destroyed by Russian attacks three weeks ago in Kostiantynivka, Ukraine
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In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that more than 600 religious sites have been destroyed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia since his forces invaded in February 2022.
Zelensky said at least 67 Ukrainian priests, pastors, and monks had been “killed or tortured by Russian occupiers,” and at least 640 religious sites have been destroyed.
“Just as we are liberating priests and pastors from Russian captivity, just as we are doing everything to protect Ukrainian cities and villages and the lives of people in them, we are restoring the ability to believe – to believe that evil and destruction will not prevail,” he vowed.
