Then, he said, the database is “updated in real time as new incidents are reported.”
To be included, Curry said that an incident “must be recorded in publicly accessible sources.”
VID is particularly useful because it “tracks data for all religious groups, including Christians, which many other religious freedom datasets fail to do.”
Curry also said that “whenever possible” VID also tracks the religions of the perpetrators, adding more context to the incidents.
Limitations
Nina Shea, director for religious freedom at the Hudson Institute, told CNA that though she believes Global Christian Relief is a reliable and sound group, the database’s reliance on self-reporting means that “no doubt many killings are missed.”
According to Shea, databases “in general don’t give analysis as to [the] motive for the killing or the context that helps identify the perpetrator. Therefore, it’s impossible to assess its data and say which killings are actually cases of religious violence.”
She said that databases often fail to identify perpetrators and label them as “gunmen” or “some other similar term,” instead of as persecutors.
She said that this “is part of the State Department’s problem in recognizing religious persecution in Nigeria,” despite religious freedom advocacy groups recognizing Nigeria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians.
Where is the persecution the worst?
Curry told CNA that based on the data compiled by VID, Nigeria is “by far the country where Christians are most likely to be killed for their faith.”
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He said that other particularly concerning data found by VID is that India is “the country where Christians are most likely to be displaced” and that China is where “Christians are most likely to be arrested.”
Lastly, Curry said that Nicaragua has “closed the most churches since 2022.”
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