A shocking fact that 105,000 Christians are martyred every year simply for their faith was revealed at an international interfaith conference. This statistic does not include war victims.

The International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims took place in Hungary, and the figures were announced by the representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Massimo Introvigne.

Every five minutes, a Christian is killed for his faith, he said.

If these figures are not cried out to the world, if this massacre is not stopped, if it is not recognized that the persecution against Christians is the first worldwide emergency with regard to religious discrimination and violence, dialogue between religions will only produce wonderful symposia but no concrete results.

Metropolitan Hilarion, foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church, highlighted that among the Christians being persecuted in a year, at least one million were children.

The conference was hosted by the Hungarian government as a highlight of its EU presidency of the European Union. Participants included religious representatives from across the world crossing various faiths.

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