JD: We’ve dealt with persecution of Christians and attacks against Christianity around the world.
DJ: These attacks and the persecution of Christians seems to be on the rise around the world and definitely escalating. As you noted on Easter Sunday there was an attack by a terrorist group on three churches and a number of high-end hotels that marks a devastating escalation of violence against a Christian minority in that country. They have been targeted in the past but never to this level. Some have suggested that ISIS was behind this and certainly ISIS has claimed credit for it. They’re looking for 140 people with ties to this particular extremist groups.
JD: You know David as far as I know Sri Lanka has not been a hot bed of Islamic extremism. So how and why did this attack happen in the first place?
DJ: Well you’re right about that Sri Lanka is not something that is in the news on a daily bases. Less than 8% of Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million are Christians and many of those are Roman Catholic. Hindus make up about 12% of the country and Muslims around 10% but the majority are Buddhist. So we wouldn’t expect this to happen. One thing I can think is that perhaps Sri Lanka because of this particular demographic situation is seen as a soft target and Christians and other groups would not necessarily be on their guard and definitely they were not on their guard.
