Over the last eight days of July, ISIS-affiliated terrorists committed brutal attacks against four villages in the Chiure district of Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province — villages predominantly populated by Christians. The terrorists burned homes, beheaded victims, and generally wreaked such mayhem that 46,000 people fled their homes and 87 schools closed.

The attacks, which came to light only after the Islamic State Mozambique Province (ISMP) published nearly two dozen photos documenting their brutality, did not happen in isolation. Rather, they are part of “a jihadist offensive across thousands of miles of contact, from West Africa (from Mali and Nigeria), through Central Africa, through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) down to Mozambique,” explained Alberto Fernandez, former U.S. Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea and now vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), on “Washington Watch.”

Separately, the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) published documentation of a July 27 attack against a Christian village in the DRC, which resulted in 45 dead, according to MEMRI.

“While it’s a conflict between terrorist groups and governments, these terrorist groups — all of them jihadist groups, not all of them the Islamic State — are all focused, among other things, on killing Christians,” Fernandez continued.

“What we see in Africa today is a kind of silent genocide or [a] silent, brutal, savage war that is occurring in the shadows and all too often ignored by the international community,” he told Fox News. “That jihadist groups are in a position to take over not one, not two, but several countries in Africa … is dangerous.”

As a former diplomat, Fernandez took a charitable view toward the governments of poor African nations like Mozambique. “The government is trying,” he said. “The challenge, of course, is that African countries — not all of them, but many of them — are not necessarily well governed, well administered. … So, for example, the military in Mozambique is not well prepared.” In response to the recent terror attacks, it took the Mozambican military eight days to deploy to the northern province.

Combating terrorism is made more difficult because “the terrorists take advantage of specific areas where there is a larger Muslim population where they can hide,” Fernandez continued. “Mozambique is a majority Christian country, but the north is majority Muslim.”

A third difficulty Mozambique faces in combating Islamist terrorism is that terrorism disrupts the country’s ability to improve itself. “In Mozambique in particular, the terrorists have disrupted a tremendous potential source of wealth … large natural gas deposits, which they can’t access — to help make their country more successful — because of these terrorist attacks.”

With the limitations faced by poor African nations, “help is going to come from countries that have serious interests” in the region, Fernandez concluded. “So, the United States is certainly one of them, [as well as] regional powers that are concerned by this growing threat because it’s not going to stay there. Both in Mozambique and in West Africa, they’re pushing south.”

Fernandez is no fan of excessive American intervention. “The administration is correct [to be] very careful about prioritizing our resources … not just going all over the place with no plan,” he explained. Rather, the U.S. would be wise to deploy “targeted, narrowly focused ways to help friendly African governments that face the threat of jihadist terror — whether that’s by American airstrikes or drone strikes or [by] supplying training and weapons.”

Of course, anti-Christian sentiment is not confined to Africa. According a newly updated report by Family Research Council, in 2024 there were 415 incidents of hostility against churches, right here in the U.S. Although the number of incidents has dipped slightly since 2023, it remains elevated after a 2022 wave of hostility in response to the Dobbs decision, explained Travis Weber, FRC’s vice president for Policy and Government Affairs, on “Washington Watch.”

“We’re not attending our grandfathers’ churches anymore,” said church security expert Tim Miller on “Washington Watch.” “You know, churches used to be the safe places. Nobody would vandalize a church. You didn’t want the fear of the Lord upon you. Unfortunately, just like Scripture says, men’s hearts are turning cold and we’re seeing an increase.”

Miller was quoting from Jesus’s famous Olivet Discourse, in which he warns his followers to stay alert and remain faithful. “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

In addition to this high level of sporadic violence against churches, Christians sometimes face institutionalized, government-backed repression. While uncommon in America, this has become run-of-the-mill in other countries where Christianity was once culturally dominant. For example, in the U.K. — which still maintains a (technically) Christian church establishment — pro-life activist Isabel Vaughan-Spruce now faces her third police investigation for silent prayer on a public street near an abortion center, even after winning her previous court case.

“Not everyone out there loves the Christian faith and loves Christians and Christian places of worship that represent the Christian faith,” Weber summarized, in a pointed understatement.

Secular critics sometimes dismiss claims of persecution against Christians as an imaginary phenomenon, fed by Christians’ victimhood complex. But Christians don’t want to become victims; they simply know that persecution is the price for following Jesus, which is precisely what Jesus preached.

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” he warned his disciples. “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:16, 22). He later explained the reason, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:19-20).

Anti-Christian attitudes are real because worldly powers and their followers are fundamentally hostile to the God Christians worship and the holy life he demands. These may manifest with more or less intensity — sometimes in mockery, sometimes in government repression, sometimes in acts of terroristic violence — but they are real, and they appear everywhere — from poor villages in Africa to the leading powers of Western civilization.

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” counseled the Apostle Paul, “while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13). Paul endured his own share of persecutions in imitation of his Lord, and he saw by the Spirit that anti-Christian animosity will continue to increase until the Lord returns.