Some campaigners and church leaders acknowledged the danger of religious persecution being seen as a modern-day clash of civilisations, a titanic struggle between Islam and Christianity, carrying the risk of polarising people of different faiths.

“It is not about Islam and Christianity. It is about the right for everyone to have the freedom to choose, practise, share non-coercively, and change their religion or belief – and it includes the right not to believe as well as the right for adherents of all religions to follow their beliefs,” said Lord Alton.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster and head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, said: “It would be a serious mistake to cast this as a Muslim-Christian conflict.” He cited a bishop in northern Nigeria, who had told him the most recent killing in his diocese was of 39 Muslims by Boko Haram. “The extremist groups are certainly perpetrating violence, against anyone who does not share their world view. That includes Christians, but it’s not exclusively Christians by any means.”

According to Marsden, there could be an element of Islamophobia in some Christian campaign organisations, “but there is also an element of victimhood – a view that the church has always been persecuted, which feeds into the martyrdom narrative”.

And, in the House of Lords, the archbishop of Canterbury alluded to Christianity’s own historical record of persecuting others, saying “the church’s sporadic record of compelling obedience to its teachings through violence and coercion is a cause for humility and shame”.

In the same debate, Sacks – along with others – pointed to the increasing threat faced by “people of all faiths, and of none”. He said: “Christians are being persecuted throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. Jews are facing a new and resurgent antisemitism. Muslims who stand on the wrong side of the Sunni-Shia divide are being killed in great numbers. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Bahá’í and others face persecution in some parts of the world. Religious freedom is about our common humanity, and we must fight for it if we are not to lose it. This, I believe, is the issue of our time.”

Not all agreed with the pope’s use of the word genocide. But, said Pearce, “if you look at what’s happening in the Middle East, it’s being purged of Christians, and there are definitely elements of religious cleansing. So I can see where the pope got that word from.”

She drew a distinction between “smash” – extreme violence – and “squeeze”, where “life as a Christian becomes inexorably harder. The squeeze inevitably makes the church more vulnerable to the smash when it comes.” The groups that were the most violent were not necessarily the worst persecutors, she added.

Campaigners have suggested action such as increased governmental pressure, legal help where there is a functioning judicial system, providing havens for refugees, and supporting NGOs on the ground. Alton would like the prime minister, David Cameron, to appoint a special envoy for religious freedom, as the US and Canada have done.

The archbishop of Canterbury said that attacks on religious freedom were often linked to economic, social and historical circumstances. “If we want to defend religious freedom around the world ... do not sell guns to people who oppress religious freedom; do not launder their money; restrict trade with them; confine the way we deal with them,” he told his fellow peers. In addition, said Nichols, “for people of faith, the promise and pattern of prayer is very important; to say you are not forgotten is a crucial and sustaining gift.”

Pearce said Open Doors constantly wrestled with how to “make clear we’re talking about the impact of extremism, that it’s not only Christians that are persecuted, and that the overall goal is to create an environment where people are free to follow any religion, or none. This is not an issue just for Christians, but a human rights issue that affects us all. It’s not a problem for the church, but much wider than that.”

Under attack

Garissa University – Kenya

On 2 April this year, gunmen from the militant Islamic group al-Shabaab attacked Garissa University in Kenya, killing 147 people and injuring 79. The gunmen released Muslim students and shot those who identified themselves as Christians, in some cases telling the students to call their parents and talk to them as they died. The gunmen held the university in a state of siege for 15 hours, with more than 700 students trapped inside. The siege ended when four of the gunmen were shot by police; the fifth was able to detonate his suicide vest, killing himself and injuring Kenyan commandos. It was the deadliest attack in Kenya since the bombing of the US embassy in 1998 and one in a series of al-Shabaab attacks on the country, which the terrorist group claimed were carried out in retribution for the “unspeakable atrocities against the Muslims of East Africa by the Kenyan security forces”.

Pregnant woman sentenced to death for apostasy – Sudan

Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian, was sentenced to death for adultery and apostasy after marrying a Christian man, with whom she had a young son. Ibrahim was raised as a Christian by her Christian mother after her Muslim father left the family when she was a young child. The Sudanese court said she should have followed the religion of her absent father, which would have prohibited her from marrying a Christian, and found her guilty of abandoning her Muslim faith. Ibrahim was arrested when she was eight months pregnant and held in a Sudanese prison with her 21-month-old son to await hanging after the birth of her second child. She was denied medical care and prison staff refused to take her to hospital when she went into labour; she gave birth to a daughter in prison with her legs shackled. Amid international outrage, Ibrahim was released on the order of the Sudanese appeal court, but was rearrested as she was boarding a plane with her husband and two children the next day. After intense diplomatic negotiations the whole family were allowed to leave and they are now living in the US.

Attacks on Christians by Isis – Iraq, Syria, Libya

Iraq’s Christian population has decreased dramatically since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, as large numbers have fled because of escalating persecution. Christians, as well as other minority groups, have been targeted by Isis in the large parts of Iraq and Syria under its control. It is believed that more than 100,000 people, many of them Christians, fled Qaraqosh, Mosul and the Nineveh plain in 2014 as Isis swept through. The Islamic extremists present Christians with the choice of converting to Islam, paying a very high tax or being murdered. In February 2015, Isis posted a video purporting to show 21 Coptic Christians being beheaded on a beach in Libya. Two months later, a second Isis video apparently showed another 30 Ehiopian Christians being shot or beheaded.

Kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram – Nigeria

A group of Boko Haram militants attacked a school in Chibok, a primarily Christian village in Nigeria, on the night of 14 April 2014. They kidnapped schoolgirls who had returned to the school to sit their final physics exam. It is uncertain how many girls were kidnapped, but estimates put it at between 276 and 329 girls, with 53 escaping in the few weeks following the attack. The girls were taken to Boko Haram strongholds and attempts by the Nigerian government and the girls’ families to rescue them have been unsuccessful. Less than a month after the kidnapping, Boko Haram released a video showing 130 of the kidnapped girls, all wearing Islamic dress. It is believed they are being held as sex slaves and have been forced to convert to Islam. Kate Lyons