World Watch Update: Libya

The small minority of Christians in Libya consists of indigenous Believers from a Muslim Background and migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa seeking work or entry to Europe. Those from a Muslim background face particularly violent and intense pressure to renounce their faith. The state of anarchy and civil war has allowed organised criminal groups to engage in human trafficking, and Islamist militant groups to attack Christians with impunity. These groups consistently kidnap Christians, and there have also been instances in which Christians have been killed, often in a very brutal and shocking manner. Christian migrants also experience intolerance, as well as racial and religious prejudice from indigenous peoples. All believers who share their faith publicly risk arrest, violence and even death.