Anthony Shelley, Human Rights & Society columnist for University of Washington student newspaper The Daily, suggests a connection between vilification of Christians in the West and persecution of Christians overseas.

Worldwide, Christians are despised and ridiculed, and ridiculed is putting it quite lightly. The lucky ones escape torture and execution, however, that wasn't the case for Peter Xu Yongze.

Four years ago in China, Yongze was hung on an iron gate and nearly torn in half, a horrible process that lasted for four agonizing hours. Amazingly, Yongze survived. His comrades, on the other hand, were murdered: one woman was beaten to death for distributing bibles. A man, who was imprisoned, died after inmates repeatedly lifted and dropped him onto the floor following commands from the jailer.

The list of human rights violations against Christians is endless.
. . .
This all may sound tragic and terrible but maybe you should ask yourself this question: Why are Christians the butt of jokes and the focus of animosity on every medium from late night talk shows to satirical plays?

To give you some perspective, news outlets regularly host experts, scholars, and Muslim religious leaders who repeatedly claim that Islam is a religion of peace while coverage of the persecution of Christians receives little or no attention at all.

The deafening silence from college campuses indicates that persecution of Christians is a non-issue to most North American university students.  Why is that?

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