London and Melbourne terror attacks: Persecution and terrorism cannot be separated, by the Barnabas Fund.

There are two important truths that political leaders need to grasp at this time. The first is that you cannot tackle violence without tackling the ideology, and the second is that you cannot separate out the rapidly growing global spread of anti-Christian persecution from the spread of jihadi violence. Politicians appear to be slowly grasping the first, yet there is little evidence that they have seriously grasped the second.

Take Nigeria as an example. In 1999 the newly elected governor of Zamfara state introduced full sharia enforcement, a move that was quickly followed by eleven other northern Nigerian states. Four years later Boko Haram emerged and soon declared a jihad and demanded that all of Nigeria become an Islamic state. Their main targets have been the Christian minority in the North, the Nigerian government and Western-style educational establishments. Boko Haram’s constant attacks, which have now spread across the border to other countries such as Cameroon, have led to large-scale religious cleansing of Christians.

hat-tip Stephen Neil