ICC Note: In a recent radio broadcast, Prince Charles of Wales spoke out against religious persecution around the world. While he has frequently spoken out against this matter, he reached a new level of concern and determination comparing the horrors of today to the evils committed during WWII. He spoke extensively on Christian persecution in the Middle East but also referenced Yazidi, Jewish and Baha’i persecution in similar areas.

12/22/2016 UK (Christian Times): Prince Charles has hit out against religious persecution around the world and spoken about “Our Lord Jesus Christ” in an unprecedented appearance on the Thought for the Day slot on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Prince of Wales framed his passage around a meeting with a Jesuit priest from Syria who gave him “a graphic account of what life is like for those Christians he was forced to leave behind”.

The heir to the throne, who has frequently spoken out about persecution against Christians in the Middle East and given undisclosed sums to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, said: “Clearly for such people religious freedom is a daily stark choice between life and death. The scale of religious persecution around the world is not widely appreciated, nor is it limited to Christians in the troubled regions of the Middle East. A recent report suggests that attacks are increasing on Yazidis, Jews, Ahmadis, Baha’is and many other minority faiths, and in some countries even more insidious forms of religious extremism have recently surfaced which aim to eliminate all types of religious diversity.”

Prince Charles went on to compare the violent religious persecution of today with the horrors of the Second World War. “We are now seeing the rise of many populist groups across the world, that are increasingly aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith. All of this has deeply disturbing echoes of the dark days of the 1930s,” he said. “I was born in 1948, just after the end of World War II, in which my parents’ generation had fought, and died, in a battle against intolerance, monstrous extremism and an inhuman attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. That nearly 70 years later we should still be seeing such evil persecution is to me beyond all belief. We owe it to those who suffered and died so horribly not to repeat the horrors of the past.”

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