Governments and media in Western countries have been too scared to point out widespread persecution of Christians.
The comments were made to Newshub by Former Massey University Professor and religious history expert Peter Lineham.
“Western countries, with the exception of the USA, are sensitive about their Muslim minorities feeling as though things are loaded against them.
“Any sign that the country bends a little bit too much towards Christians would produce a howl of protest from both the secular side of government and Muslim minorities and so they back away.”
Governments and media have little regard for truth, he says.
They want to be seen to promote harmony over division.
“It’s a classic example of a determination to produce a certain sort of result by ignoring rather serious facts,” says Lineham.
On Tuesday, CathNews reported the persecution of Christians is at near genocide levels in some parts of the world.
The report drew on an interim report ordered by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
The review estimates that one in three people suffer from religious persecution. Of these, Christians are the most persecuted, indeed “genocidal acts against Christians” are causing Christianity to be “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East.
Lineham suggested a study that includes more comparative data may have been more effective.
“I think it would be quite interesting if it [the report] had done more comparative stats of Muslim versus Christians, and then it would be very stark.”
“It is largely in Muslim majority countries; you’ve got states that are determined to suppress the expression of Christianity because that’s what sharia law requires”, he said.
This week’s report is expected to be analysed further with the full results released by the end of June.
Sources