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Have 100,000 Christians died as martyrs?

How true are claims that there is an unreported global war on Christians? The Vatican says the 100,000 statistic is a credible number. But is it?

Is there a global war on Christians? It is claimed that an average of 100,000 Christians have died because of their faith every year for the past decade - and that this is an 'unreported catastrophe'.

The Vatican has called it a credible number. But is it?

Ruth Alexander and Wesley Stephenson fact-check the widely-quoted statistic.

We speak to: John Allen, journalist and author of The Global War on Christians; Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, from the International Society for Human Rights; Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in the US; Ian Linden, associate professor in the study of religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and author of Church and Revolution in Rwanda

(Image: An Egyptian Christian mourns. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

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11 minutes

Last on

Mon 4 Nov 2013 03:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 2 Nov 2013 11:50GMT
  • Sat 2 Nov 2013 22:50GMT
  • Mon 4 Nov 2013 03:50GMT

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