Source: Christian Broadcasting Network, March 31, 2015<\/p>\n
Yemen is the Arab world\u2019s poorest country. With the majority of the Yemini people following Islam, the tiny Christian community there is under constant threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife for Christians in Yemen is very hard,\u201d a Yemini Christian named Sam told CBN News. \u201cFor that matter, across the Middle East, there\u2019s not a country where Christians are not suffering for their faith. This is our reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sam was a Muslim, but he converted to Christianity. CBN News met him at an undisclosed location off the coast of North Africa. In an exclusive interview, he said if authorities discovered his real identity, he could be arrested or killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll Christians in Yemen are from a Muslim background,\u201d he continued. \u201cAccording to Islamic Sharia law, it is forbidden for Muslims to convert to Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government says there is religious freedom, but that is not true,\u201d he continued. \u201cChristians are routinely harassed. They face daily struggle and persecution; first from their family members, then from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some 25 million people live in Yemen. The majority follow the Sunni branch of Islam. No one knows for sure how many, but it\u2019s estimated there are a few thousand secret Christians.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a> or watch video<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb See also What Is Going on in Yemen<\/a>? (The Economist) and Remembering Yemen<\/a> (J.D. Payne).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Christian Broadcasting Network, March 31, 2015 Yemen is the Arab world\u2019s poorest country. With the majority of the Yemini people following Islam, the tiny Christian community there is under constant threat. \u201cLife for Christians in Yemen is very hard,\u201d a Yemini Christian named Sam told CBN News. \u201cFor that matter, across the Middle East, … Continue reading YEMEN: Christians Say \u201cSuffering Is Our Reality\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5503,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5502\/revisions\/5503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}