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According to shari’a (Islamic law) non-Muslims under Islam, who are known as dhimmis, have inferior status. Accordingly, in early Islam dhimmis had to pay a special tax, received less compensation for injury, and their testimony was worth less in a law court than the testimony of Muslims. They were subjected to many humiliating restrictions which reduced them to living as “second class” citizens. Although there is no official dhimmi status nowadays, the same attitudes – and some of the same restrictions – that were present in early Islam are still found in many Muslim countries today. Some Islamic groups have recently expressed their desire to introduce these principles again, although they have not necessarily used the word “dhimmi".

Shari’a decrees that adult male Muslims who leave Islam must be killed. Three of the five schools of Islamic law rule that women who leave Islam must also be killed. Many Muslims are now becoming Christians. Some converts are officially executed, others are murdered unofficially at the hands of zealous Muslims or family members. Those who are not killed usually suffer harassment, threats and violence, as well as often facing legal difficulties.

Parts of shari’a are enshrined in the law of an increasing number of Muslim countries. Even where shari’a is not officially practised, its anti-Christian regulations are well known to most Muslims. Therefore it has an effect on the general attitude of the Muslim majority, who tend to despise Christians, discriminate against them and show hostility towards them. Christians live with increased discrimination, both official and unofficial, often leading to violence.

Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” punishes the crime of “defiling the name” of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a mandatory death sentence. The law courts tend to give more weight to the word of a Muslim than to the word of a Christian, so Christians are vulnerable to malicious accusations. Although no one has yet been executed under this law, several accused Christians have been murdered by zealous Muslims taking the law into their own hands. Those who do survive must go into hiding permanently – their lives destroyed by a lie.

In 1999-2002 Islamic militants advanced across the Maluku islands in Indonesia, destroying Christian villages, killing Christians or forcing them to become Muslims, i.e. “cleansing” the islands of Christianity. Hundreds of thousands of Christians fled their homes, and tens of thousands were killed. At the time Indonesian security forces did virtually nothing to intervene. The violence then spread to other parts of Indonesia and it is feared it will escalate again soon.

The concept of jihad as literal war on non-Muslims is used by many Islamic extremists today to justify their violent attacks on Christians. When the Islamic government of North Sudan waged war on the mainly-Christian South, trying to force them to accept shari’a, they called it a jihad. Increasingly, militant Islamic groups are targeting Christians and calling for their destruction.

In Iraq many churches and other Christian buildings have been bombed, and Christians singled out for violent attack. Some have been kidnapped and beheaded. Christian women have had acid thrown in their faces for not wearing an Islamic headcovering. Christian fathers have been threatened that their daughters must marry Muslim men in order to be purified. Islamic terrorists have demanded jizya from Christian families because the Christians do not fight in the insurgency against American, British and coalition forces .