Editing Persecution of Christians (section)

==Modern era (1815 to 1989)==
=== Communist Albania ===
{{Main|Religion in Albania#Communist Albania|Freedom of religion in Albania}}
Religion in Albania was subordinated to the interests of [[Marxism]] during the rule of [[Party of Labour of Albania|the country's communist party]] when all religions were suppressed. This policy was justified by the communist stance of [[state atheism]] from 1967 to 1991.<ref name="Hall1999">{{Cite journal|last=Hall|first=Derek R.|date=1999|title=Representations of Place: Albania|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=165|issue=2|pages=161–172|doi=10.2307/3060414|jstor=3060414 |bibcode=1999GeogJ.165..161H |issn=0016-7398}}</ref> The [[Agrarian Reform Law (Albania)|Agrarian Reform Law]] of August 1945 nationalized most of the property which belonged to religious institutions, including the estates of mosques, monasteries, religious orders, and dioceses. Many clergy and believers were tried and some of them were executed. All foreign Roman Catholic priests, monks, and nuns were expelled from Albania in 1946.<ref name="country-data.com">{{cite web|title=Albania – Hoxha's Antireligious Campaign|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-186.html|work=country-data.com | date= April 1992 | author =((Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress)) }}</ref><ref name="AlbaniaHandbook">{{cite book|title=Albania : a country study (Area Handbook for Albania)|date=1994|publisher=Library of Congress; Federal Research Division; Department of the Army|isbn=0-8444-0792-5|editor1-last=Zickel|editor1-first=Raymond|edition=2nd|editor2-last=Iwaskiw|editor2-first=Walter R.}}</ref> The military seized churches, cathedrals and mosques and converted them into basketball courts, movie theaters, dance halls, and the like; and members of the clergy were stripped of their titles and imprisoned.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jordan|first1= Mary|date=18 April 2007|title=Albania finds religion after decades of atheism|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-04-18-0704170802-story.html|newspaper=[[The Chicago Tribune]] | url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last1=Hargitai | first1= Quinn|date=3 November 2016|title=The country that's famous for tolerance|url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161024-the-worlds-most-tolerant-country|website=(BBC Travel) bbc.com|publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Around 6,000 Albanians were disappeared and murdered by agents of the Communist government, and their bodies were never found or identified. Albanians continued to be imprisoned, tortured and killed for their religious practices well into 1991.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Brunwasser|first1= Matthew|date=26 February 2017|title=As Albania Reckons With Its Communist Past, Critics Say It's Too Late|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/world/europe/as-albania-reckons-with-its-communist-past-critics-say-its-too-late.html |url-access= subscription}}</ref>

Religious communities or branches of them which had their headquarters outside the country, such as the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] and [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] orders, were henceforth ordered to terminate their activities in Albania. Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with the education of the young, because that activity had been made the exclusive province of the state. All religious communities were prohibited from owning real estate and they were also prohibited from operating philanthropic and welfare institutions and hospitals. [[Enver Hoxha]]'s overarching goal was the eventual destruction of all [[organized religion]]s in Albania, despite some variance in his approach to it.<ref name="country-data.com"/><ref name="AlbaniaHandbook"/>

=== Iraq ===
{{See also|Christianity in Iraq}}
The Assyrians were subjected to another series of persecutions during the [[Simele massacre]] of 1933, with the death of approximately 3,000 Assyrian civilians in the [[Kingdom of Iraq]] at the hands of the [[Royal Iraqi Army]].{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

In 1987, the last Iraqi census counted 1.4&nbsp;million Christians.<ref>{{cite web|date=19 October 2006|title=Christians live in fear of death squads|url=http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61897|agency=IRIN}}</ref> They were tolerated under the secular regime of [[Saddam Hussein]], who even made one of them, [[Tariq Aziz]] his deputy. However, Saddam Hussein's government continued to persecute the Christians on an [[ethnic]], cultural and racial basis, because the vast majority are Mesopotamian [[Eastern Aramaic]]-speaking ethnic Assyrians (aka [[Chaldo-Assyrians]]). The Assyro-Aramaic language and script was repressed, the giving of Hebraic/Aramaic Christian names or Akkadian/Assyro-Babylonian names was forbidden (for example [[Tariq Aziz]]'s real name was Michael Youhanna), and Saddam exploited religious differences between Assyrian denominations such as [[Chaldean Catholics]], the [[Assyrian Church of the East]], the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], the [[Assyrian Pentecostal Church]] and the [[Ancient Church of the East]], in an attempt to divide them. Many Assyrians and Armenians were ethnically cleansed from their towns and villages during the [[al Anfal Campaign]] in 1988, despite the fact that this campaign was primarily directed against the Kurds.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

===Madagascar===
[[File:Christian martyrs burned at the stake in Madagascar.jpg|thumb|upright=1.18|Christian martyrs [[burned at the stake]] by Ranavalona I in Madagascar]]
Queen [[Ranavalona I]] (reigned 1828–1861) issued a royal edict prohibiting the practice of [[Christianity in Madagascar]], expelled British missionaries from the island, and sought to [[Persecution of Christians in Madagascar|stem the growth of conversion]] to Christianity within her realm. Far more, however, were punished in other ways: many were required to undergo the ''[[tangena]]'' ordeal, while others were condemned to hard labor or the confiscation of their land and property, and many of these consequently died. The tangena ordeal was commonly administered to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused person for any crime, including the practice of Christianity, and involved ingestion of the poison contained within the nut of the tangena tree (''[[Cerbera odollam]]''). Survivors were deemed innocent, while those who perished were assumed guilty.

In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people in Imerina died as a result of the ''tangena'' ordeal, constituting roughly 20% of the population.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Campbell|first=Gwyn|date=October 1991|title=The state and pre-colonial demographic history: the case of nineteenth century Madagascar|journal=Journal of African History|volume=23|issue=3|pages=415–445|doi=10.1017/S0021853700031534}}</ref> contributing to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts.<ref name="Laidler 2005">Laidler (2005)</ref> [[Malagasy people|Malagasy]] Christians would remember this period as ''ny tany maizina'', or "the time when the land was dark". Persecution of Christians intensified in 1840, 1849 and 1857; in 1849, deemed the worst of these years by British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins (1878), 1,900 people were fined, jailed or otherwise punished in relation to their Christian faith, including 18 executions.<ref name="Sunday">{{Cite magazine|last=Cousins|first=W.E. |title=Since 1800 in Madagascar; 1877–1878|magazine=The Sunday Magazine for Family Reading|publisher=Daldy, Isbister & Co|volume=1|pages=405–410|place=London}}</ref>

===Nazi Germany===
{{main|Nazism|Nazi Germany|Religion in Nazi Germany|Religious aspects of Nazism|Religious views of Adolf Hitler|German Christians (movement)|Positive Christianity|Kirchenkampf|Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany|Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany}}
{{Modern persecutions of the Catholic Church}}
[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] received some support from certain Christian fundamentalist communities, mainly due to their common cause against the anti-religious Communists, as well as their mutual [[Antisemitism|Judeophobia]] and [[antisemitism]]. Once in power, the Nazis moved to consolidate their power over the German churches and bring them in line with Nazi ideals. Some historians say that Hitler had a general covert plan, which some of them say existed even before the Nazis' rise to power, to destroy Christianity within the Reich, which was to be accomplished through Nazi control and subversion of the churches and it would be completed after the war.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C|title=World Fascism: A-K|isbn=9781576079409 |editor1-last=Blamires |editor1-first=Cyprian |editor2-last=Jackson |editor2-first=Paul |year=2006 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic | page= 10 | author-last= Griffin | author-first= Roger |author-link= Roger Griffin | quote = There is no doubt that in the long run Nazi leaders such as Hitler and Himmler intended to eradicate Christianity just as ruthlessly as they intended to eradicate any other rival ideology, even if in the short term they had to be content to make compromises with it. }}{{Pb}}{{Cite book|last=Mosse|first=George Lachmann | author-link= George Lachmann Mosse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cyR3QyuSdIC|title=Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich|date=2003|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-19304-1|page=240 | quote= Had the Nazis won the war, their ecclesiastical policies would have gone beyond those of the [[German Christians (movement)|German Christians]], to the utter destruction of both the Protestant and Catholic Churches.}}{{pb}}{{Cite book|last=Bendersky|first=Joseph W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ATCXucbTYX0C|title=A Concise History of Nazi Germany|date=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5363-7| page= 147 | quote =Consequently, it was Hitler's long range goal to eliminate the churches once he had consolidated his control over his European empire. }}{{Pb}}{{Cite book|last=Fischel|first=Jack R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzBZP92xwUUC|title=Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust|date=2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7485-5| page= 123 | author-link= Jack Fischel | quote = The objective was to either destroy Christianity and restore the German gods of antiquity or turn Jesus into an [[Aryan race|Aryan]].}}{{pb}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRrGP7L9_hEC|title=Germany: A Modern History|isbn=0472071017 |last1=Dill |first1=Marshall |year=1970 |publisher=University of Michigan Press | page= 365 | quote = It seems no exaggeration to insist that the greatest challenge the Nazis had to face was their effort to eradicate Christianity in Germany or at least subjugate it to their general world outlook.}}</ref> The Third Reich founded its own version of Christianity which was called [[Positive Christianity]], a Nazi version of Christianity which made major changes in the interpretation of the Bible by arguing that [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]] was the son of God, but he was not a Jew, arguing that Jesus despised Jews and Judaism, and arguing that [[Jewish deicide|the Jews were the ones who were solely responsible for Jesus's death]].{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Outside mainstream Christianity, the [[Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany|Jehovah's Witnesses were targets of Nazi Persecution]], for their refusal to swear allegiance to the Nazi government. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s, [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] refused to renounce their political neutrality and as a result, they were imprisoned in [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. The Nazi government gave detained Jehovah's Witnesses the option of release if they signed a document which indicated their renunciation of their faith, their submission to state authority, and their support of the German military.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.holocaust-trc.org/persecution-and-resistance-of-jehovahs-witnesses/|title=Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses During the Nazi-Regime 1938–1945|website=Holocaust Teacher Resource Center | date= October 2000 | author=Michael Berenbaum }}</ref> Historian Hans Hesse said, "Some five thousand Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps where they alone were 'voluntary prisoners', so termed because the moment they recanted their views, they could be freed. Some lost their lives in the camps, but few renounced their faith."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hesse|first=Hans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mcxD0qxHMO0C|title=Persecution and resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi regime, 1933–1945|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2001|isbn=978-3-86108-750-2|page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany: From the 1890s to 1945|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jehovahs-witnesses-in-germany-from-the-1890s-to-the-1930s|access-date=2023-01-02|website=Holocaust Encyclopedia| publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref>

===Ottoman Empire===
{{Main|Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|Persecution of Eastern Orthodox Christians#Persecution in the Ottoman Empire|Late Ottoman genocides|Armenian genocide|Seyfo|Great Famine of Mount Lebanon|Greek genocide}}
{{See also|1843 and 1846 massacres in Hakkari}}
During the modern era, relations between Muslims and Christians in the [[Ottoman Empire]] were largely shaped by broader dynamics which were related to European colonial and neo-imperialist activities in the region, dynamics which frequently (though by no means always) generated tensions between the two communities. Too often, growing European influence in the region during the nineteenth century seemed to disproportionately benefit Christians, thus, it triggered resentment on the part of many Muslims, likewise, many Muslims suspected that Christians and the European powers were plotting to weaken the [[Muslim world|Islamic world]]. Further exacerbating relations was the fact that Christians seemed to disproportionately benefit from efforts at reform (one aspect of which generally sought to elevate the political status of non-Muslims), likewise, the various Christian nationalist uprisings in the Empire's European territories, which often had the support of the European powers.<ref>{{ cite book | author= Erik Freas | title= Muslim-Christian Relations in Late-Ottoman Palestine: Where Nationalism and Religion Intersect | place= New York | publisher= Palgrave Macmillan | date= 2016 | isbn =978-1137570413}}</ref> [[File:1895erzurum-victims.jpg|upright=1.32|thumb|Corpses of massacred Armenian Christians in [[Erzurum]] in 1895]]Persecutions and forced migrations of Christian populations were induced by Ottoman forces during the 19th century in the European and Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The [[Massacres of Badr Khan]] were conducted by [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] and [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] forces against the [[Assyrian Christian]] population of the Ottoman Empire between 1843 and 1847, resulting in the slaughter of more than 10,000 indigenous Assyrian civilians of the [[Hakkari (historical region)|Hakkari]] region, with many thousands more being sold into [[slavery]].<ref>{{ cite book | last= Aboona | first= H |date=2008 | title= Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire| publisher= Cambria Press | isbn = 978-1-60497-583-3}}</ref>{{sfn|Gaunt|Beṯ-Şawoce|2006|p=32}}

[[File:Adana Massacre in Le Petit.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|[[Adana massacre of 1909]]]]
On 17 October 1850 the Muslim majority began rioting against the [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate Catholics]] – a minority that lived in the communities of Judayda, in the city of Aleppo.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Masters|first=Bruce|title=The 1850 Events in Aleppo: An Aftershock of Syria's Incorporation into the Capitalist World System|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|volume=22}}</ref>

During the [[April Uprising|Bulgarian Uprising (1876)]] against Ottoman rule, and the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)]], the persecution of the [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] Christian population was conducted by Ottoman soldiers. The principal locations were [[Panagurishte]], [[Perushtitza]], and [[Bratzigovo]].<ref name="Chisholm 1911, p. 781">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bulgaria/History|display=Bulgaria § Political History|volume=4|page=871}}</ref> Over 15,000 non-combatant [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] civilians were killed by the Ottoman army between 1876 and 1878, with the worst single instance being the [[Batak massacre]].<ref name="Chisholm 1911, p. 781" /><ref>{{ cite book | title= Religion, Ethnicity and Contested Nationhood in the Former Ottoman Space| editor1=Jørgen S. Nielsen | publisher= Brill | date= 2011 | isbn= 978-9004211339 | chapter=The Short History of Bulgaria for Export | first=Evelina |last= Kelbecheva | pages=223–247 |doi=10.1163/9789004216570_013 
}}</ref>{{rp|228}}
During the war, whole cities including the largest Bulgarian one ([[Stara Zagora]]) were destroyed and most of their inhabitants were killed, the rest being expelled or enslaved. The atrocities included impaling and grilling people alive.<ref>{{Cite book | first= William | date= 1896 |chapter-url=https://depts.washington.edu/cartah/text_archive/miller/m2_c5.html|title=The Balkans| chapter= Chapter 5: Bulgaria under the Turks | last= Miller | archive-date=16 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016151348/https://depts.washington.edu/cartah/text_archive/miller/m2_c5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar attacks were undertaken by Ottoman troops against Serbian Christians during the [[Attacks on Serbs in the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78)|Serbian-Turkish War (1876–1878)]].

[[File:Anatolian Metropolises 1880.svg|thumbnail|upright=1.32|Greek-Orthodox metropolises in Asia Minor, ca. 1880. Since 1923 only the [[Metropolis of Chalcedon]] retains a small community.]] [[File:Assyrianmassacres.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.24|The Assyrian genocide was a mass slaughter of the Assyrian population.<ref>{{ cite book | first= Martin van | last= Bruinessen | title=Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan| date= 1992 | publisher= Bloomsbury Academic | pages= 25, 271 | isbn =9781856490184 }}</ref>]]

The abolition of ''jizya'' and emancipation of formerly ''dhimmi'' subjects was one of the most embittering stipulations the Ottoman Empire had to accept to end the [[Crimean War]] in 1856. Then, "for the first time since 1453, church bells were permitted to ring... in Constantinople," writes M. J. Akbar. "Many Muslims declared it a day of mourning." Indeed, because superior social standing was from the start one of the advantages of conversion to Islam, resentful Muslim mobs rioted and hounded Christians all over the empire. In 1860 up to 30,000 Christians were massacred in the Levant alone.<ref>{{cite book | first = M.J. | last= Akbar | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5R3PwAACAAJ | isbn=9788174362919 | title=The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam and Christianity | year=2003 | publisher=Lotus Collection }}</ref>
Mark Twain recounts what took place in the levant:<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-RTAAAAcAAJ | isbn=9781495902291 | title=The Innocents Abroad | year=1869 | publisher=Collins Clear-Type Press | author1= Mark Twain | author-link= Mark Twain }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=Men, women and children were butchered indiscriminately and left to rot by hundreds all through the Christian quarter... the stench was dreadful. All the Christians who could get away fled from the city, and the Mohammedans would not defile their hands by burying the 'infidel dogs.' The thirst for blood extended to the high lands of Hermon and Anti-Lebanon, and in a short time twenty-five thousand more Christians were massacred.|}}

Between 1894 and 1896 a series of ethno-religiously motivated Anti-Christian [[pogrom]]s known as the [[Hamidian massacres]] were conducted against the ancient [[Armenians|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] [[Christians|Christian]] populations by the forces of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{ cite book
| orig-date= 2002 | isbn = 978-0-8108-6096-4
| last= Adalian | first=Rouben Paul | date= 2010| title= Historical Dictionary of Armenia | edition=2nd | place= Lanham, MD | publisher= Scarecrow | page=154}}</ref> The motives for these massacres were an attempt to reassert [[Pan-Islamism]] in the Ottoman Empire, resentment of the comparative wealth of the ancient indigenous Christian communities, and a fear that they would attempt to secede from the tottering Ottoman Empire.<ref>{{Citation
 | last1 =Morris
 | first1 =Benny
 | last2 =Ze'evi
 | first2 =Dror
 | author2-link=Dror Ze'evi
 | title =[[The Thirty-Year Genocide]]
 | publisher =Harvard University Press
 | year =2019
 | page =672
 | isbn =9780674916456}}</ref> The massacres mainly took place in what is today southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria and northern Iraq. Assyrians and Armenians were massacred in [[Diyarbakir]], [[Hasankeyef]], [[Sivas]] and other parts of Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The death toll is estimated to have been as high as 325,000 people,<ref>[[Taner Akçam|Akçam, Taner]] (2006) [[A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility]] p. 42, [[Metropolitan Books]], New York {{ISBN|978-0-8050-7932-6}}</ref><ref>Angold, Michael (2006), O'Mahony, Anthony, ed., Cambridge History of Christianity, 5. Eastern Christianity, Cambridge University Press, p. 512, {{ISBN|978-0-521-81113-2}}.</ref> with a further 546,000 Armenians and Assyrians made destitute by forced deportations of survivors from cities, and the destruction or theft of almost 2500 of their farmsteads towns and villages. Hundreds of churches and monasteries were also destroyed or forcibly converted into mosques.<ref>Cleveland, William L. (2000). A History of the Modern Middle East (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview. p. 119. {{ISBN|0-8133-3489-6}}.</ref> These attacks caused the death of over thousands of Assyrians and the forced "Ottomanisation" of the inhabitants of 245 villages. The Ottoman troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements and these were later stolen and occupied by south-east Anatolian tribes. Unarmed Assyrian women and children were raped, tortured and murdered.<ref>{{cite book|last=de Courtois|first=S|title=The forgotten genocide: eastern Christians, the last Arameans|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|year=2004|isbn=978-1-59333-077-4|pages=105–107}}</ref> According to H. Aboona, the independence of the Assyrians was destroyed not directly by the Turks but by their neighbours under Ottoman auspices.<ref>Aboona, H (2008). Assyrians and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. {{ISBN|978-1-60497-583-3}}. p.284</ref>

The [[Adana massacre]] occurred in the [[Adana Vilayet]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in April 1909. A massacre of [[Armenians|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Christians in the city of [[Adana]] and its surrounds amidst the [[31 March Incident]] led to a series of anti-Christian [[pogrom]]s throughout the province.<ref>Raymond H. Kévorkian, "The Cilician Massacres, April 1909" in ''Armenian Cilicia'', eds. [[Richard G. Hovannisian]] and Simon Payaslian. UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 7. Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 2008, pp. 339–69.</ref> Reports estimated that the Adana Province massacres resulted in the death of as many as 30,000 Armenians and 1,500 Assyrians.<ref>{{cite book|last=Adalian|first=Rouben Paul|title=Century of Genocide|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=9780415871914|editor1-last=Totten|editor1-first=Samuel|pages=117–56|chapter=The Armenian genocide|editor2-last=Parsons|editor2-first=William S.|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XYp-z5aP4MC&pg=PA132}}</ref><ref name="Adalian2010">{{cite book|last=Adalian|first=Rouben Paul|title=Historical Dictionary of Armenia|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2010|isbn=9780810874503|pages=70–71|chapter=Adana Massacre|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QS-vSjHObOYC&pg=PA70}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.seyfocenter.com/index.php?sid=2&aID=36|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018023706/http://www.seyfocenter.com/index.php?sid=2&aID=36 | archive-date= 18 October 2013 | date= 18 April 2009 | last = Gaunt | first= David | work = Assyrian Genocide Research Center | title= The Assyrian Genocide of 1915}}</ref>

Between 1915 and 1921 the [[Young Turks]] government of the collapsing [[Ottoman Empire]] persecuted [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christian]] populations in [[Anatolia]], [[Persia]], Northern [[Mesopotamia]] and [[The Levant]]. The onslaught by the Ottoman army, which included Kurdish, Arab and Circassian irregulars resulted in an estimated 3.4&nbsp;million deaths, divided between roughly 1.5&nbsp;million [[Armenians|Armenian]] Christians,<ref>{{cite web|title=Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex|url=http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/Description_and_history.php|publisher=[[Armenian genocide Museum-Institute]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kifner|first=John|author-link=John Kifner|date=7 December 2007|title=Armenian Genocide of 1915: An Overview|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html}}</ref> 0.75 million [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] Christians, 0.90&nbsp;million [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox Christians]] and 0.25&nbsp;million [[Maronites|Maronite Christians]] (see [[Great Famine of Mount Lebanon]]);<ref>Hatzidimitriou, Constantine G., ''American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna by the Kemalist Turkish Forces: September 1922'', New Rochelle, [[New York (state)|NY]]: Caratzas, 2005, p. 2.</ref> groups of [[Georgians|Georgian]] Christians were also killed. The massive ethnoreligious cleansing expelled from the empire or killed the [[Armenians]], [[Greeks]] and [[Thracian Bulgarians|Bulgarians]] who had not converted to Islam, and it came to be known as the [[Armenian genocide]],<ref>{{Citation|last1=Kieser|first1=Hans-Lukas|title=Der Völkermord an den Armeniern und die Shoah|page=114|year=2002|trans-title=The Armenian Genocide and the Shoah|publisher=Chronos|language=de|isbn=3-0340-0561-X|last2=Schaller|first2=Dominik J}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher J. Walker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNEOAAAAQAAJ|title=Armenia, the Survival of a Nation|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1980|isbn=978-0-312-04944-7}} * {{cite book|last=Akçam|first=Taner|title=A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility|title-link=A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility|year=2007|page=327|author-link=Taner Akçam}} – [https://books.google.com/books?id=E-_XTh0M4swC Profile at] [[Google Books]]</ref> [[Assyrian genocide]],<ref name="Aprim2005">{{cite book|last=Aprim|first=Frederick A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4glAQAAMAAJ|title=Assyrians: the continuous saga|date=January 2005|publisher=F.A. Aprim|page=40|isbn=9781413438574}}</ref> [[Greek genocide]].<ref name="Rummel">{{Citation|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph|title=Death by Government|year=1994}}</ref> and [[Great Famine of Mount Lebanon]].<ref>Ghazal, Rym (14 April 2015). "Lebanon's dark days of hunger: The Great Famine of 1915–18". The National. Retrieved 24 January 2016.</ref><ref>Harris 2012, p. 174</ref> which accounted for the deaths of Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and Maronite Christians, and the deportation and destitution of many more. The Genocide led to the devastation of ancient [[indigenous peoples|indigenous]] Christian populations who had existed in the region for thousands of years.<ref>The Plight of Religious Minorities: Can Religious Pluralism Survive? – p. 51 by United States Congress</ref><ref>The Armenian Genocide: Wartime Radicalization Or Premeditated Continuum – p. 272 edited by Richard Hovannisian</ref><ref>Not Even My Name: A True Story – p. 131 by [[Thea Halo]]</ref><ref>The Political Dictionary of Modern Middle East by Agnes G. Korbani</ref>

[[Benny Morris]] and [[Dror Ze'evi]] argue that the [[Armenian genocide]] and other contemporaneous [[#Ottoman Empire|persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire]] ([[Greek genocide]], and [[Assyrian genocide]]) constitute an extermination campaign, or [[genocide]], carried out by the [[Ottoman Empire]] against [[Christianity in the Ottoman Empire|its Christian subjects]].<ref name="Morris">{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author-link1=Benny Morris |last2=Ze'evi |first2=Dror |author-link2=Dror Ze'evi |year=2019 |title=The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-24008-7 |pages=3–5}}</ref><ref name="Gutman">{{cite journal|author=Gutman, David|year=2019|title=The thirty year genocide: Turkey's destruction of its Christian minorities, 1894–1924|journal=[[Turkish Studies]]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|volume=21|pages=1–3|doi=10.1080/14683849.2019.1644170|s2cid=201424062}}</ref><ref name="Morris-Zeevi 2021"/>

In the aftermath of the [[Sheikh Said rebellion]], the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]] and the [[Assyrian Church of the East]] were subjected to harassment by Turkish authorities, on the grounds that some [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] allegedly collaborated with the rebelling [[Kurds]].<ref>J. Joseph, Muslim-Christian relations and Inter-Christian rivalries in the Middle East, Albany, 1983, p. 102.</ref> Consequently, mass deportations took place and Assyrian Patriarch [[Mar Ignatius Elias III]] was expelled from the [[Mor Hananyo Monastery]] which was turned into a Turkish barrack. The patriarchal seat was then temporarily transferred to [[Homs]].

=== Turkey ===
The Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, after the vast majority of Christian inhabitants of Anatolia had been expelled or massacred in the late Ottoman period ([[Armenian genocide]], [[Greek genocide]]). However, there still remained sizeable Greek and Armenian minorities in Istanbul. Beginning in the 1940s, the Turkish government instituted repressive policies forcing many Christians to emigrate. Examples are the [[Labour battalion (Turkey)|labour battalions]] drafted among non-Muslims during World War II, as well as the Fortune Tax ([[Varlık Vergisi]]) levied mostly on non-Muslims during the same period. These resulted in financial ruination and death for many Christians. The exodus was given greater impetus with the [[Istanbul Pogrom]] of September 1955 and the [[Expulsion of Greeks from Istanbul|expulsion of Istanbul Greeks]] which led to thousands of Greeks fleeing the city, eventually reducing the Greek population from 200,000 in 1924 to about 7,000 by 1978 and to about 2,500 by 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Standpoint |first=Internationalist |date=2023-09-06 |title=September 6-7, 1955: Istanbul Pogrom- a "closed chapter" in Turkish history? |url=https://www.internationaliststandpoint.org/september-6-7-1955-istanbul-pogrom-a-closed-chapter-in-turkish-history/ |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=Internationalist Standpoint |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Soviet Union ===
[[File:Christ saviour explosion.jpg|thumb|Demolition of the [[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour]] on 5 December 1931: The USSR's official [[state atheism]] resulted in the [[USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)|1921–1928 anti-religious campaign]], during which many "church institution[s] at [the] local, diocesan or national level were systematically destroyed."<ref>{{cite book|title=Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2002|isbn=1857431375|page=46}}</ref>]]{{Further|Human rights in the Soviet Union#Freedom of religion|Operation North|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union|Religion in the Soviet Union|Soviet anti-religious legislation|Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc}}

After the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917, the [[Bolsheviks]] undertook a massive program to remove the influence of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] from the government, outlawed [[antisemitism]] in society, and promoted [[state atheism|atheism]]. Tens of thousands of churches were destroyed or they were converted to buildings which were used for other purposes, and many members of the clergy were murdered, publicly executed and imprisoned for what the government termed "anti-government activities". An extensive educational and propaganda campaign was launched to convince people, especially children and youths, to abandon their religious beliefs. This persecution resulted in the intentional murder of 500,000 Orthodox followers by the government of the Soviet Union during the 20th century.<ref name="russian orthodox killed">World Christian trends, AD 30-AD 2200, pp. 230–246 Tables 4–5 & 4–10 By David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, Peter F. Crossing NOTE: They define 'martyr' on p235 as only including Christians killed for faith and excluding other Christians killed</ref> In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.<ref name="Ostling">{{cite magazine|last=Ostling|first=Richard|date=24 June 2001|title=Cross meets Kremlin|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813173443/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 August 2007|magazine=Time}}</ref>

The state established [[atheism]] as the only scientific truth.<ref name="peris">[[Daniel Peris]] ''Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless'' Cornell University Press 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-8014-3485-3}}</ref><ref>Antireligioznik (The Antireligious, 1926–41), Derevenskii Bezbozhnik (The Godless Peasant, 1928–1932), and Yunye Bezbozhniki (The Young Godless, 1931–1933).</ref><ref name="Vladimir pg 291">History of the Orthodox Church in the History of Russian Dimitry Pospielovsky 1998 St Vladimir's Press {{ISBN|0-88141-179-5}} pg 291</ref><ref name="auto">A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Antireligious Policies, Dimitry Pospielovsky Palgrave Macmillan (December 1987) {{ISBN|0-312-38132-8}}</ref> Soviet authorities forbade the criticism of atheism and agnosticism until 1936 or of the state's anti-religious policies; such criticism could lead to forced retirement.<ref>John Anderson, Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp 9</ref><ref>Dimitry V. Pospielovsky. A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer, vol 1: A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies, St Martin's Press, New York (1987). pg 84.</ref><ref>Prot. Dimitri Konstantinov, Gonimaia Tserkov' (New York:Vseslavianskoe izdatel'stvo, 1967) pp. 286–7, and (London:Macmillan, 1969) chs 4 and 5</ref> Militant atheism became central to the ideology of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and a high priority policy of all Soviet leaders.<ref name="Froese, Paul 2005">Froese, Paul. "'I am an atheist and a Muslim': Islam, communism, and ideological competition." Journal of Church and State 47.3 (2005)</ref> Christopher Marsh, a professor at the [[Baylor University]] writes that "Tracing the social nature of religion from Schleiermacher and Feurbach to Marx, Engles, and Lenin...the idea of religion as a social product evolved to the point of policies aimed at the forced conversion of believers to atheism."<ref name="Marsh2011">{{cite book|last=Marsh|first=Christopher|title=Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-0284-3|page=13}}</ref>

Under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to [[Marxist-Leninist atheism|atheism]]" was conducted by the Communists.<ref>Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, p. 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.</ref><ref>Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History, by Dilip Hiro. Penguin, 2009.</ref><ref name="Adappur2000">{{cite book|last=Adappur|first=Abraham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44DYAAAAMAAJ|title=Religion and the Cultural Crisis in India and the West|publisher=Intercultural Publications|year=2000|isbn=9788185574479|quote=Forced Conversion under Atheistic Regimes: It might be added that the most modern example of forced "conversions" came not from any theocratic state, but from a professedly atheist government – that of the Soviet Union under the Communists.}}</ref> The Communist Party destroyed churches, mosques and [[synagogue|temples]], ridiculed, harassed, incarcerated and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with anti-religious teachings, and it introduced a belief system called "[[Marxist–Leninist atheism|scientific atheism]]", with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers.<ref name="Paul Froese 2004 pp. 35–50">Paul Froese. Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar. 2004), pp. 35–50</ref><ref name="Haskins, Ekaterina V 2009">Haskins, Ekaterina V. "Russia's postcommunist past: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the reimagining of national identity." History and Memory: Studies in Representation of the Past 21.1 (2009)</ref> Many priests were killed and imprisoned; thousands of churches were closed. In 1925 the government founded the [[League of Militant Atheists]] to intensify the persecution.<ref>Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p. 494"</ref> The League of Militant Atheists was also a "nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peris |first1=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC2LSv5QNYkC |title=Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless| date=1998 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801434853| location=Ithaca| page=2 |quote=Created in 1925, the League of the Militant Godless was the nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism.}}
</ref>

The Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions against particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most [[organized religion]]s were never outlawed. It is estimated that 500,000 Russian Orthodox Christians were martyred in the [[gulag]]s by the Soviet government, excluding the members of other [[Christian denominations]] who were also tortured or killed.<ref name="russian orthodox killed" />

The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], which had the largest number of faithful worshippers. A very large segment of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to [[Gulag|labor camps]]. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500. Between 1917 and 1940, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested. The widespread persecution and internecine disputes within the church hierarchy lead to the seat of [[Patriarch of Moscow]] being vacant from 1925 to 1943.

After [[Operation Barbarossa]], Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, [[Joseph Stalin]] revived the Russian Orthodox Church in order to intensify the Soviet population's patriotic support of the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|war effort]]. By 1957, about 22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active. But in 1959, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] initiated his own campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and forced about 12,000 churches to close. By 1985, fewer than 7,000 churches remained active.<ref name="Ostling" />

In the Soviet Union, in addition to the methodical closure and destruction of churches, the charitable and social work which was formerly done by ecclesiastical authorities was taken over by the state. As with all private property, Church owned property was confiscated and converted to public use by the state. The few places of worship which were left to the Church were legally viewed as state property which the government permitted the church to use. After the advent of state funded universal education, the Church was not permitted to carry on educational, instructional activity for children. For adults, only training for church-related occupations was allowed. With the exception of sermons which could be delivered during the celebration of the divine liturgy, it could not instruct the faithful nor could it evangelize the youth. Catechism classes, religious schools, study groups, Sunday schools and religious publications were all declared illegal and banned. This caused many religious tracts to be circulated as illegal literature or ''[[samizdat]]''.<ref name="google" /> Even after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] in 1953, the persecution continued, and it did not end until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church has recognized a number of [[New-martyr|New Martyrs]] as saints, some of whom were executed during the [[Mass operations of the NKVD]] under directives like [[NKVD Order No. 00447]].

Both before and after the October Revolution of 7 November 1917 (25 October Old Calendar), there was a movement within the Soviet Union which sought to unite all of the people of the world under Communist rule (see [[Communist International]]). This movement spread to the Eastern European bloc countries as well as the Balkan States. Since the populations of some of these Slavic countries tied their ethnic heritages to their ethnic churches, the people and their churches were both targeted for ethnic and political genocide by the Soviets and their form of [[State atheism]].<ref>President of Lithuania: Prisoner of the Gulag a Biography of [[Aleksandras Stulginskis]] by Afonsas Eidintas Genocide and Research Center of Lithuania {{ISBN|9986-757-41-X}} / 9789986757412, pg 23 "As early as August 1920 [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] wrote to [[Ephraim Sklyansky|E. M. Sklyansky]], President of the Revolutionary War Soviet: "We are surrounded by the greens (we pack it to them), we will move only about 10–20 versty and we will choke by hand the [[bourgeoisie]], the clergy and the landowners. There will be an award of 100,000 rubles for each one hanged." He was speaking about the future actions in the countries neighboring Russia.</ref><ref>Christ Is Calling You: A Course in Catacomb Pastorship by Father [[George Calciu]] Published by Saint Hermans Press April 1997 {{ISBN|978-1-887904-52-0}}</ref> The Soviets' official religious stance was one of "religious freedom or tolerance", though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth (see also the Soviet or committee of the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Scientific and Political Knowledge or [[Znanie (educational organization, founded 1947)|Znanie]] which was until 1947 called [[Society of the Godless|The League of the Militant Godless]] and various [[Intelligentsia]] groups).<ref name="Vladimir pg 291" /><ref name="auto" /><ref>Daniel Peris Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless Cornell University Press 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-8014-3485-3}}</ref> Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes, it resulted in imprisonment.<ref name="Froese2008">{{cite book|last=Froese|first=Paul|title=The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization|date=6 August 2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-94273-8|page=122|quote=Before 1937, the Soviet regime had closed thousands of churches and removed tens of thousands of religious leaders from positions of influence. By the midthirties, Soviet elites set out to conduct a mass liquidation of all religious organizations and leaders... officers in the League of Militant Atheists found themselves in a bind to explain the widespread persistence of religious belief in 1937.... The latest estimates indicate that thousands of individuals were executed for religious crimes and hundreds of thousands of religious believers were imprisoned in labor camps or psychiatric hospitals.}}</ref><ref name="FranklinWiddis2006">{{cite book|last1=Franklin|first1=Simon|title=National Identity in Russian Culture|last2=Widdis|first2=Emma|date=2 February 2006|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-02429-7|page=104|quote=Churches, when not destroyed, might find themselves converted into museums of atheism.}}</ref><ref name="Bevan2016">{{cite book|last=Bevan|first=Robert|title=The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War|date=15 February 2016|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-78023-608-7|page=152|quote=Churches, synagogues, mosques and monasteries were shut down in the immediate wake of the Revolution. Many were converted to secular uses or converted into Museums of Atheism (antichurches), whitewashed and their fittings were removed.}}</ref><ref name="Ramet1990">{{cite book|last1=Ramet|first1=Sabrina P.|title=Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies|date=1990|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0822310471|pages=232–33|quote=From kindergarten onward children are indoctrinated with an aggressive form of atheism and trained to hate and distrust foreigners and to denounce parents who follow religious practices at home.|author-link=Sabrina P. Ramet}}</ref> Some of the more high-profile individuals who were executed include [[Benjamin of Petrograd|Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd]], priest and scientist [[Pavel Florensky]].

=== Spain ===
{{Main|Red Terror (Spain)|White Terror (Spain)|Cristero War}}

The [[Second Spanish Republic]], established in 1931, attempted to establish a regime with separation between State and Church, as had been established in France in 1905. When it was established, the Republic passed legislation which prevented the Church from conducting educational activities.  The Spanish Second Republic was characterized by a process of political polarisation, as party divisions became increasingly embittered and questions of religious identity came to assume major political significance. The existence of different Church institutions was an illustration of the situation which resulted from the proclamation which denounced the 2nd Republic as an anti-Catholic, Masonic, Jewish, and Communist internationalist conspiracy which heralded a clash between God and atheism, chaos and harmony, Good and Evil.<ref name="Dronds 2013">{{cite book |last=Dronda |first=Javier |date=2013 |title=Con Cristo o contra Cristo: Religión y movilización antirrepublicana en Navarra (1931–1936)|location=Tafalla |publisher=Txalaparta |pages=201–202, 220 |isbn=978-84-15313-31-1 | language= es}}</ref>{{rp|201–202}} The Church's high-ranking officials like Isidro Goma, bishop of [[Tudela, Navarre|Tudela]], reminded their Christian subjects of their obligation to vote "for the righteous", and they also reminded their priests of their obligation to "educate the consciences."<ref name="Dronds 2013" />{{rp|220}} In the [[Asturian miners' strike of 1934]], during the [[Revolution of 1934]], 34 Catholic priests were massacred and churches were systematically burned.<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal|last=de la Cueva|first=Julio|year=1998|title=Religious Persecution, Anticlerical Tradition and Revolution: On Atrocities against the Clergy during the Spanish Civil War|journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=355–369|jstor=261121|issn=0022-0094}}</ref> Anticlerical opinion accused the Catholic priesthood and religious orders of hypocrisy: clerics were guilty of taking up arms against the people, of exploiting others for the sake of wealth, and of sexual immorality all while claiming the moral authority of peacefulness, poverty, and chastity.<ref name=":13" />

Since the early years of the Second Spanish Republic, [[History of the far-right in Spain|far-right]] forces, which were imbued with an ultra-Catholic spirit, attempted to overthrow the Republic. [[Carlists]], Africanistas, and Catholic theologians fostered an atmosphere of social and racial hatred in their speeches and writings.<ref name="Preston 2013">{{cite book | author=Paul Preston | title=The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain. | publisher= HarperCollins | location= London, UK | isbn=978-0-00-638695-7 | year=2013 | pages=4, 44–45}}</ref>{{rp|44–45}} The Catholic Church endorsed the rebellion which was led by the fascist [[Francisco Franco]], and [[Pope Pius XI]] expressed sympathy for the Nationalist side during the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref name=":13" /> The Catholic authorities described Franco's war as a "crusade" against the Second Republic, and later the [[Collective Letter of the Spanish Bishops, 1937]] appeared, justifying Franco's attack on the Republic.<ref name=":13" /> A similar approach is attested in 1912, when the bishop of [[Almería]] {{Interlanguage link|José Ignacio de Urbina|lt=|es||WD=}} (founder of the {{Interlanguage link|Liga Nacional Antimasónica y Antisemita|lt=National Anti-Masonic and Anti-Semitic League|es||WD=}}) announced "a decisive battle that must be unleashed" between the "light" and "darkness".<ref name="Preston 2013" />{{rp|4}} Though the official declaration of the "crusade" followed the Republican persecution of Catholic clerics, the Catholic Church was already predisposed towards Franco's position, because it was seen as the "perfect ally of fascism" while it opposed the anticlerical policies of the Second Republic.<ref name=":13" /> The 1936 anticlerical persecution has been seen as "final phase of a long war between clericalism and anticlericalism"<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ranzato|first=Gabriele|year=1988|title=Dies irae. La persecuzione religiosa nella zona repubblicana durante la guerra civile spagnola (1936–1939)|journal=Movimento Operaio e Socialista|volume=11|pages=195–220 | language= es}}</ref> and "fully consistent with a Spanish history of popular anticlericalism and anticlerical populism".<ref name=":13" />

Stanley Payne suggested that the persecution of right-wingers and of people who were associated with the [[Catholic Church in Spain|Catholic church]] both before and at the beginning of the [[Spanish Civil War]] involved the murder of priests and other clergy, as well as the murder of thousands of lay people, by members of nearly all leftist groups, while a killing spree was also unleashed across the Nationalist zone.<ref>{{Cite book
| via = The Library of Iberian Resources Online
| first= Stanley G. | last= Payne
|chapter=Chapter 26: The Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939
|title= A History of Spain and Portugal vol. 2|chapter-url=https://libro.uca.edu/payne2/payne26.htm|access-date=2023-01-02}}</ref> During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, and especially during the early months of the conflict, individual clergymen and entire religious communities were executed by leftists, some of whom were [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]]. The death toll of the clergy alone included 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, reaching a total of 6,832 clerical victims.<ref name=":13" /> The main perpetrators of the Red Terror were members of the anarchist [[Federación Anarquista Ibérica]], the [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo]], and the [[Trotskyist]] [[Workers' Party of Marxist Unification]].<ref name=":13" /> These organizations distanced themselves from the violence, condemned those who were responsible for it or characterized the killings as mob reprisals for acts of violence which had been perpetrated by the clerics themselves, an explanation which was readily accepted by the public.<ref name=":13" />

In addition to the murder of both the clergy and the faithful, the destruction of churches and the desecration of sacred sites and objects was also widespread. On the night of 19 July 1936 alone, some fifty churches were burned.<ref name="Mitchell 1983">{{ cite book | first= David | last= Mitchell | title= The Spanish Civil War | place= New York| publisher= Franklin Watts| date= 1983| pages= 45–46}}</ref>{{rp|45}} In [[Barcelona]], out of the 58 churches, only the cathedral was spared, and similar desecrations occurred almost everywhere in Republican Spain.<ref name="Mitchell 1983" />{{rp|46}}

Two exceptions were [[Biscay]] and [[Gipuzkoa]], where the [[Christian Democratic]] [[Basque Nationalist Party]], after some hesitation, supported the Republic and halted the persecution of Catholics in areas which were held by the [[Basque Government]]. All other Catholic churches which were located in the Republican zone were closed. The desecration was not limited to Catholic churches, because synagogues and Protestant churches were also pillaged and closed, but some small Protestant churches were spared. After [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[Francoist Spain|regime]] rose to power, it would keep Protestant churches and synagogues closed, because it only legalized the Catholic Church.<ref name="google2">{{Cite book| last=Payne |first=Stanley G.| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPgPFqXub14C| title=Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II| date=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12282-4| pages=13, 215}}</ref>{{rp|215}}

Payne called the terror the "most extensive and violent persecution of Catholicism in Western History, in some way even more intense than that of the [[Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution|French Revolution]]."<ref name="google2"/>{{rp|13}}
The persecution drove Catholics to the side of the Nationalists, even more of them sided with the Nationalists than would have been expected, because they defended their religious interests and survival.<ref name="google2" />{{rp|13}}

The Roman Catholic priests who were killed during the Red Terror are considered "[[Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War]]", but the priests who were executed by the fascists are not counted among them. A group known as the "[[498 Spanish Martyrs]]" was [[beatified]] by the Roman Catholic Church's [[Pope Benedict XVI]] in 2007. The history of the Red Terror has been obscured by the inattention of scholars and the "embarrassing partiality" of ecclesiastical historians.<ref name=":13" />
Some of the numerous non-fascists who were persecuted during Franco's [[White Terror (Spain)|White Terror]] were [[Protestantism in Spain|Protestants]], because the fascists accused them of being associated with [[Freemasonry]], and the persecution which they were subjected to during Franco's White Terror was much more intense than the persecution which they were subjected to during the [[Red Terror (Spain)|Red Terror]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vincent|first=Mary|date=18 December 2014|title=Ungodly Subjects: Protestants in National-Catholic Spain, 1939–53| publisher= Sage |journal=European History Quarterly| volume=45|issue=1 |pages=108–131|doi=10.1177/0265691414552782|s2cid=145265537|issn=0265-6914|url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/80827/3/Ungodly%20subjects%20EHQ%20revised.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Beevor|first=Antony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-mayoYS6eIC|title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939|publisher=Penguin|year=2006|isbn=978-1-101-20120-6|pages=88–89}}</ref>

===United States===
{{See also|Christianity in the United States|Freedom of religion in the United States|History of Christianity in the United States|History of religion in the United States|Human rights in the United States#Freedom of religion|Religion in the United States|Religious discrimination in the United States}}
The [[Latter Day Saint Movement|Latter Day Saints]], ([[Mormons]]) have been [[Anti-Mormonism|persecuted]] since their founding in the 1830s. The persecution of the Mormons drove them from New York and [[Ohio]] to [[Missouri]], where they continued to be subjected to violent attacks. In 1838, Missouri Governor [[Lilburn Boggs]] declared that Mormons had made war on the state of Missouri, so they "must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State".<ref name="Feldman">{{cite news|last=Feldman|first=Noah|date=6 January 2008|title=What Is It About Mormonism?|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06mormonism-t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=92f33bb3ad8525e6&ex=1357448400&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink}}</ref> At least 10,000 Mormons were expelled from the State. In the most violent altercation which occurred at that time, the [[Haun's Mill massacre]], 17 Mormons were murdered by an anti-Mormon mob and 13 other Mormons were wounded.<ref>{{citation|title=Church History in the Fulness of Times, Student manual (Religion 341, 342, and 343)|year=2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111022133933/http://lds.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times-student-manual/chapter-sixteen-missouri-persecutions-and-expulsion?lang=eng|chapter=Chapter Sixteen: Missouri Persecutions and Expulsion|chapter-url=http://www.lds.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times-student-manual/chapter-sixteen-missouri-persecutions-and-expulsion?lang=eng|publisher=[[Institute of Religion]], [[Church Educational System]], [[LDS Church]]|archive-date=22 October 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The [[Missouri Executive Order 44|Extermination Order]] which was signed by Governor Boggs was not formally invalidated until 25 June 1976, 137 years after being signed.

The Mormons subsequently fled to [[Nauvoo, Illinois|Nauvoo]], Illinois, where hostilities escalated again. In Carthage, Ill., where [[Joseph Smith]] was being held on the charge of [[treason]], a mob stormed the jail and killed him. Smith's brother, Hyrum, was also killed. After a [[succession crisis (Latter Day Saints)|succession crisis]], most Mormons followed [[Brigham Young]], who organized an evacuation from the United States after the federal government refused to protect them.<ref>{{citation|last=Smith|first=Joseph Fielding|title=Church History and Modern Revelation|date=1946–1949|volume=4|pages=167–173|publisher=[[Deseret Book]]|author-link=Joseph Fielding Smith}}</ref> 70,000 [[Mormon pioneers]] crossed the [[Great Plains]] to settle in the [[Salt Lake Valley]] and surrounding areas. After the [[Mexican–American War]], the area became the US [[Utah Territory|territory of Utah]]. Over the next 63 years, several actions by the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] were directed against Mormons in the [[Mormon Corridor]], including the [[Utah War]], the [[Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act]], the [[Poland Act]], ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'', the [[Edmunds Act]], the [[Edmunds–Tucker Act]], and the [[Reed Smoot hearings]].
[[File:KKK - St Patricks Day (cr).jpg|thumb|In this 1926 cartoon, the Ku Klux Klan chases the Roman Catholic Church, personified by [[St Patrick]], from the shores of America.]]
The second iteration of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], founded in 1915 and launched in the 1920s, persecuted Catholics in both the United States and [[Ku Klux Klan in Canada|Canada]]. As stated in its official rhetoric which focused on the threat of the [[Catholic Church]], the Klan was motivated by [[Anti-Catholicism in the United States|anti-Catholicism]] and American [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]].<ref name="pegram">Thomas R. Pegram, ''One Hundred Percent American: The Rebirth and Decline of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s'' (2011), pp. 47–88.</ref> Its appeal was exclusively directed towards [[white Anglo-Saxon Protestants]]; it opposed [[Jews]], [[Black people|blacks]], Catholics, and newly arriving [[Southern Europe|Southern]] and Eastern European immigrants such as [[Italians]], [[Russians]], and [[Lithuanians]], many of whom were either Jewish or Catholic.<ref>Kelly J. Baker, ''Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, 1915–1930'' (2011), p. 248.</ref>

=== Warsaw Pact ===
[[File:Cerkiew Teodory z Sihli.jpg|thumb|[[St. Teodora de la Sihla Church]] in [[Central Chișinău]] was one of the churches that were "converted into museums of atheism", under the doctrine of [[Marxist–Leninist atheism]].<ref name="BrezianuSpânu2010">{{cite book|last1=Brezianu|first1=Andrei|title=The A to Z of Moldova|date=26 May 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7211-0|page=98|quote=Communist Atheism. Official doctrine of the Soviet regime, also called "scientific atheism". It was aggressively applied to Moldova, immediately after the 1940 annexation, when churches were profaned, clergy were assaulted, and signs and public symbols of religion were prohibited, and it was again applied throughout the subsequent decades of the Soviet regime, after 1944. … The St. Theodora Church in downtown Chişinău was converted into the city's Museum of Scientific Atheism,}}</ref>]]
Across Eastern Europe following World War II, the parts of the [[Nazi Empire]] which were conquered by the Soviet [[Red Army]] and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] became one-party Communist states and the project of coercive conversion to atheism continued.<ref>Peter Hebblethwaite; Paul VI, the First Modern Pope; HarperCollins Religious; 1993; p. 211</ref><ref>Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Viking; 2003; p.566 & 568</ref> The Soviet Union ended its war time truce with the Russian Orthodox Church, and [[Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc|extended its persecutions to the newly Communist Eastern bloc]]: "In [[Polish anti-religious campaign|Poland]], Hungary, Lithuania and other Eastern European countries, Catholic leaders who were unwilling to be silent were denounced, publicly humiliated or imprisoned by the Communists. Leaders of the national Orthodox Churches in [[Anti-religious campaign of Communist Romania|Romania]] and Bulgaria had to be cautious and submissive", wrote [[Geoffrey Blainey]].<ref name="Viking p. 494">[[Geoffrey Blainey]]; ''[[A Short History of Christianity]]''; Viking; 2011; p.494</ref> While the churches were generally not persecuted as harshly as they had been in the USSR, nearly all of their schools and many of their churches were closed, and they lost their formally prominent roles in public life. Children were taught atheism, and clergy were imprisoned by the thousands.<ref name="Viking p. 508">[[Geoffrey Blainey]]; ''[[A Short History of Christianity]]''; Viking; 2011; p.508</ref> In the [[Eastern Bloc]], Christian churches, along with Jewish synagogues and Islamic mosques were forcibly "converted into museums of atheism."<ref name="FranklinWiddis2006" /><ref name="Bevan2016" />

Along with executions, some other actions which were taken against Orthodox priests and believers included [[torture]], being sent to [[Gulag|prison camps]], [[sharashka|labour camps]] or [[Psikhushka|mental hospitals]].<ref name="google" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Patricia|date=26 November 2006|title=Anti-Communist Priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500783.html|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>The Washington Post Anti-Communist Priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa by Patricia Sullivan Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, 26 November 2006; p. C09</ref>

=== North Korea ===
{{Main articles|Persecution of Christians in North Korea|Prison camps in North Korea|Christianity in North Korea|Religion in North Korea}}