Report documents violence, discrimination against Bangladesh’s Christians

November 17, 2016

A London-based human rights organization has issued a report on the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Bangladesh.

The South Asian nation of 169 million is nearly 90% Muslim, nearly 10% Hindu, and 0.2% Catholic.

Bangladesh’s Christians have often suffered “discrimination in many areas of their lives, including employment or housing,” Minority Rights Group International stated in its report. “There have been reports of some Muslim landlords refusing to rent apartments to Christian families, for example, and Christians and other minorities typically work disproportionately in the most marginalized, poorly paid jobs such as street sweepers.”

Violence against Christians, the report continued, has been “driven by material concerns such as land. In the words of one Christian representative, ‘Christians are attacked for their land and property, and the attackers are backed by all political parties. They think Christians are a minuscule minority, weak and unable to protest and resist.”

 

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Further information:

• Under threat: The challenges facing religious minorities in Bangladesh (Minority Rights Group International)