'Islamist groups gaining ground in Africa' warns persecution charity

There is a "pressing threat" to Christians in Kenya and Tanzania as a result of "Islamic groups determined to establish their brutal version of Sharia law," a leading persecution charity said today.

"Islamist groups are gaining ground in Africa,' said Chief Executive of Release International, Paul Robinson.

"There is evidence to suggest they will become a growing force for instability in East Africa in 2015. The greatest risk to freedom of faith in the New Year comes from Islamic groups determined to establish their brutal version of Sharia law – whatever the cost to human life."

Robinson said that Iraq, where militant group Islamic State has been gaining ground, was one of the worst places in the world to be a Christian in 2014. "Faced with the stark choice of conversion or beheading, most left everything and fled," he said, adding: "Intolerant extremism poses the greatest threat to Christians in 2015."

Looking ahead to the next year, Kenya and Tanzania in particular have been identified as areas of increasing concern for Christians. Islamists in Somalia are extending their reach and "threaten to destabilise surrounding nations," a statement from Release said, noting that Christians there are "experiencing a new and brutal wave of violence." Read more

What we are seeing is a resurgence of Islam around the world. In some part of the world this resurgence is taking a non-violent form--the proselytization of receptive individuals and groups, the establishment of madrasas, and the construction of mosques. In other parts of the world it has become violent as militant Islamists seek to forcibly impose an extreme brand of Islam and sharia law upon an unwilling population. The extent to which the two forms of this resurgence are tied together varies from region to region. It has exposed and highlighted the divisions within Islam itself and the extremes to which some Muslims are willing to go to make their particular brand of Islam not the just the only form of Islam in the world but the only form of religion.