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SAUDI ARABIA: Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia. Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh reports that both citizens and foreigners are targets of harassment by members of the Mutawwa'in and by religious vigilantes acting independently. Non-Muslim worshipers risk arrest, lashing, and deportation for engaging in any religious activity that attracts official attention.
IRAN: The Iranian constitution declares that Islam is the 'official religion' of Iran. The Government restricts freedom of religion for Christians. Official oppression of evangelical Christians increased in 1996. In July 1996, Shahram Sepehri-Fard, a Muslim convert to Christianity, was arrested on charges of having 'sensitive information.' He has been denied visitors since shortly after his arrest, and his condition is unknown. In late September 1996, another Muslim convert to evangelical Christianity, Pastor Mohammed Yussefi was found dead in a public park. He is widely believed to have been murdered by Iranian authorities. In January 1997, two Christian evangelists, Daniel Baumann and Stuart Timm, were arrested and detained under suspicion of espionage, a charge which is often levied against persons who proselytize in Iran.
SUDAN: Forced conversion to Islam of Christians, animists, and other non-Muslims takes place as part of government policy. The14-year-old civil war between the mainly Islamic north and the largely animist and Christian south has claimed more than a million lives. In war zones, government efforts to restrict religious freedom are particularly heavy-handed--churches are closed or permission to build them is denied, clergy are harassed, and members of indigenous faiths are persecuted. There are reports that many Christians are victims of slave raids and forced conversion, and that some Christian children have been forced into reeducation camps where they are given Arab names and raised as Muslims.
EGYPT: Egypt's constitution provides for freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites. However, Christians face discrimination based on tradition and some aspects of the law, and there have been instances of persecution of Christians in Egypt in recent years. In addition, Christians have been the target of terrorist groups seeking to overthrow the Government and establish an Islamic state, and terrorists have killed dozens of Christians, as well as hundreds of other citizens, in the past few years, despite government efforts to protect the population.
PAKISTAN: Pakistan's constitution establishes Islam as the state religion. Since 1986, Section 295(c) of the Penal Code has stipulated the death penalty for blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed. The Government permits Muslims to convert to other faiths, but proselytizing among Muslims is illegal. Islamic extremists have assaulted, raped, and even murdered members of religious minorities. In October 1996, 14 Christian families fled the Punjab village Number 35 Eb Arfiwala following the arrest of one member of their community for alleged blasphemy. In February 1997, Muslim mobs destroyed homes and churches belonging to Christians in the Khanewal area.
ETHIOPIA: Religious tensions between Christians and Muslims, particularly in certain regions (most notably the Oromiya and Somali regions) persist, and anti-Christian sentiment is sometimes fueled by historical perceptions of Christians as elite. According to reports from non-governmental organizations, tension at the local level between and among Christians and Muslims has led to incidents of harassment, intimidation, and in some cases, violence.
Lebanon: Syria's leader, Assad, is trying to de-Christianize Lebanon. When the Hizbollah (Islamic fundamentalists) need blood for their troops, they will go into a Christian community and drain blood from a child until he or she is dead.
Egypt: Both converts and ethnic Coptic Christians have their businesses looted, higher education denied, and churches are burned. Rape of Christian women is used to force Islamic conversion.
Saudi Arabia: Conversion to Christianity is a crime punishable by death.
Pakistan: Under the blasphemy law, Christians are often fined, imprisioned or killed.
Sudan: Over one million people have died as a result of Sudan's Islamic government. Three million have been displaced whose villages have been burned or had property confiscated. Women and children are kidnapped and sold into slavery for as little as $15. Christian children are forced to go to brainwashing Islamic re-education camps.

Let's have no more talk of "moral equivalency" between Christianity and Islam.