A pioneering institute to investigate the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has been launched in the United Kingdom.
The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution is the brainchild of Dr. Martin Par-sons, a former aid worker to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He served in those two countries both under the Taliban and after the Taliban had been evicted from power.
The first of its kind, the center aims to generate research focused on countries like Nigeria, where Christians are currently being subjected to crimes against huma-nity and are at risk of genocide.
“The Lindisfarne Centre aims not just to describe what is ha-ppening but also to explain why it is happening, as well as seeking to predict where it is likely to spread to,” Dr. Parsons, a world-renowned expert on Islam and the persecution of Christians, told Church Militant.
“It is quite extraordinary that respected major human rights organizations and even the United Nations will simply ignore the persecution of Christians – pre-ferring to focus on other minority groups,” Parsons, who has a doct-orate in Islamic studies, explain-ed.
“It is urgent that the perse-cution of Christians, particularly in the Islamic world, is put back on the agenda of international bodies, governments and NGOs,” he emphasized.
“We are seeking to produce research that is both academically valid and accessible but without being merely anecdotal. We want to produce something that is sufficiently credible to be acce-pted as evidence in court cases involving persecuted Christians,” Parsons added.