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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

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More or Less: Have 100,000 Christians died as martyrs?

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An Egyptian Christian mourns next to a blood-stained painting of Jesus Christ, 02 January 2011

02/11/2013

Have 100,000 Christians died as martyrs?

BBC World Service - More or Less, Have 100,000 Christians died as martyrs?

How true are claims that there is an unreported global war on Christians?

How true are claims that there is an unreported global war on Christians? The Vatican says the 100,000 statistic is a credible number. But is it?

Is there a global war on Christians? It is claimed that an average of 100,000 Christians have died because of their faith every year for the past decade - and that this is an 'unreported catastrophe'. 

The Vatican has called it a credible number. But is it? 

Ruth Alexander and Wesley Stephenson fact-check the widely-quoted statistic.

We speak to: John Allen, journalist and author of The Global War on Christians; Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, from the International Society for Human Rights; Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in the US; Ian Linden, associate professor in the study of religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and author of Church and Revolution in Rwanda

(Image: An Egyptian Christian mourns. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

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