Owen Jones
It seems as though Sudan's persecution of Meriam Ibrahim will not end.
After finally being released two days ago from a death sentence for converting to Christianity, she and her family have been arrested by Sudanese security agents after trying to flee for US shores.
But as well as hoping that she is finally liberated, her plight should draw attention to the persecution of Christians across the globe.
It is an issue not discussed enough by progressives, partly perhaps because of a fear that it has become a hobby horse of Muslim-bashers.
Anti-Muslim websites like Jihad Watch seize on examples of Christian persecution to fuel the narrative of Muslims as innately violent and threatening.
According to Rupert Shortt, who wrote Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack, the persecution of Christians is a "liberal blind spot", suggesting that we are "very, very sensitised to the perceived sufferings and complaints of Muslims, many of which I will be the first to say are justified."
I think this counterposing is unhelpful.
According to the Pew Research Centre, Christians and Muslims are united in being the two most persecuted religious groups on Earth: in 2012, Christians faced oppression in 110 countries, and Muslims have suffered in 109.
What should worry us is a general deterioration in inter-religious relations: according to Pew, 33% of countries had high religious hostilities in 2012, a dramatic jump from 20% in 2007.
Sudan is far from the worst offender: it scores 11th on the World Watch List of Open Doors UK, a charity fighting for the rights of persecuted Christians.
North Korea's totalitarian dictatorship has the ignominy of topping the list: tens of thousands of Christians are believed to be locked up in Gulag-style work camps, although it should be said that life is hardly a bundle of laughs for many other North Koreans either.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram have targeted Christians along with ordinary Muslims in the country's north-east.
In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, over 2,000 Christians protested earlier this year over a lack of religious freedom and attacks by Buddhist extremists on their places of worship.
It is, unsurprisingly, the Middle East where the situation for Christians has dramatically deteriorated in recent years.
One of the legacies of the invasion of Iraq has been the purging of a Christian community that has lived there for up to two millennia. It is a crime of historic proportions.
We can't be sure about the figures, but up to three-quarters of the country's Christians have fled. On Christmas Day last year, 35 Christians were killed in targeted car bombs.
In neighbouring Syria, Islamist fundamentalist groups have stipulated that Christians must either convert to their interpretation of Islam, pay jizya – a compulsory tax worth 14g of pure gold – and accept strict restrictions on worship, or face execution.
And then there's our staunch ally, the thuggish regime in Saudi Arabia, which is the only country on Earth to ban all churches or other non-Muslim places of worship; forbids the distribution of Bibles; and threatens those who convert to Christianity with a death sentence.
Last year, for instance, Saudi courts sentenced men to lashes and jail for allegedly converting a woman to Christianity.
This is a nation we arm to the teeth – last year alone, we sold this nightmarish regime £1.6bn worth of military goods.
Those of us on the left – who advocate religious acceptance and diversity – must surely speak louder about the persecution of Christians.
The suffering and oppression is real, and in many places, getting ever worse.
If we do not speak out, the danger is it will be left to those with ulterior motives who wish to hijack misery to fuel religious hatred – with disastrous consequences.
Although it is important to remember - not that Owen is doing this, but there are those who would and do - that objecting to the persecution of Christians simply because the persecuted are Christians is an extremely un-Christlike thing to do.
It seems as though Sudan's persecution of Meriam Ibrahim will not end.
After finally being released two days ago from a death sentence for converting to Christianity, she and her family have been arrested by Sudanese security agents after trying to flee for US shores.
But as well as hoping that she is finally liberated, her plight should draw attention to the persecution of Christians across the globe.
It is an issue not discussed enough by progressives, partly perhaps because of a fear that it has become a hobby horse of Muslim-bashers.
Anti-Muslim websites like Jihad Watch seize on examples of Christian persecution to fuel the narrative of Muslims as innately violent and threatening.
According to Rupert Shortt, who wrote Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack, the persecution of Christians is a "liberal blind spot", suggesting that we are "very, very sensitised to the perceived sufferings and complaints of Muslims, many of which I will be the first to say are justified."
I think this counterposing is unhelpful.
According to the Pew Research Centre, Christians and Muslims are united in being the two most persecuted religious groups on Earth: in 2012, Christians faced oppression in 110 countries, and Muslims have suffered in 109.
What should worry us is a general deterioration in inter-religious relations: according to Pew, 33% of countries had high religious hostilities in 2012, a dramatic jump from 20% in 2007.
Sudan is far from the worst offender: it scores 11th on the World Watch List of Open Doors UK, a charity fighting for the rights of persecuted Christians.
North Korea's totalitarian dictatorship has the ignominy of topping the list: tens of thousands of Christians are believed to be locked up in Gulag-style work camps, although it should be said that life is hardly a bundle of laughs for many other North Koreans either.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram have targeted Christians along with ordinary Muslims in the country's north-east.
In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, over 2,000 Christians protested earlier this year over a lack of religious freedom and attacks by Buddhist extremists on their places of worship.
It is, unsurprisingly, the Middle East where the situation for Christians has dramatically deteriorated in recent years.
One of the legacies of the invasion of Iraq has been the purging of a Christian community that has lived there for up to two millennia. It is a crime of historic proportions.
We can't be sure about the figures, but up to three-quarters of the country's Christians have fled. On Christmas Day last year, 35 Christians were killed in targeted car bombs.
In neighbouring Syria, Islamist fundamentalist groups have stipulated that Christians must either convert to their interpretation of Islam, pay jizya – a compulsory tax worth 14g of pure gold – and accept strict restrictions on worship, or face execution.
And then there's our staunch ally, the thuggish regime in Saudi Arabia, which is the only country on Earth to ban all churches or other non-Muslim places of worship; forbids the distribution of Bibles; and threatens those who convert to Christianity with a death sentence.
Last year, for instance, Saudi courts sentenced men to lashes and jail for allegedly converting a woman to Christianity.
This is a nation we arm to the teeth – last year alone, we sold this nightmarish regime £1.6bn worth of military goods.
Those of us on the left – who advocate religious acceptance and diversity – must surely speak louder about the persecution of Christians.
The suffering and oppression is real, and in many places, getting ever worse.
If we do not speak out, the danger is it will be left to those with ulterior motives who wish to hijack misery to fuel religious hatred – with disastrous consequences.
Although it is important to remember - not that Owen is doing this, but there are those who would and do - that objecting to the persecution of Christians simply because the persecuted are Christians is an extremely un-Christlike thing to do.
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