These, we are told, were the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and persecution has been a hot topic for Christians ever since. True, they have dished out more than their fair share of the stuff to non-Christians (or ‘wrong’ Christians) over the centuries and have at times rivaled the most sadistic of Roman emperors in their dedication to inflicting agony on their hapless victims; true, too, that recent scholarship has cast doubt on the ferocity of the persecution faced by early Christians; but all the same, there is no doubt that persecution has been a horrible reality for some Christians throughout the last 2000 years.
Indeed, it still is. There are many parts of the world where to be a Christian is to take your life in your hands. Many Islamic nations, in particular, are not known for their tolerance towards other faiths. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Christians have been attacked, forcibly converted, banned from positions of power, or even murdered for their beliefs. And Islam is not the only culprit: Christians in India have experienced violence at the hands of Hindu extremists, while in Communist China imprisonment awaits Christians attending non-approved churches.
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