North Korea is again on the top of the list for the sixth time in a row. The government deals harshly with all opponents, including those who engage in religious practices. A personality cult has been built around the country's leader, Kim Jong-Il, and his late father and founding president, Kim Il-Sung. The North Korean population is cut off and isolated from the rest of the world and dependent on the regime for their needs. It is a widespread North Korean perception that Christianity is "a bad element" in the socialist country. The North Korean authorities have brutally persecuted and slaughtered God's people. Christians have been beaten, arrested, tortured or killed because of their religious beliefs. Our local source estimates the number of underground Christians to be at least 200,000, and it's likely that there are as many as 400,000 to half-a-million believers. At least a quarter of the Christians are imprisoned for their faith in political prison camps, from which people rarely get out of alive. Raids are made regularly, both in North Korea and China, to arrest refugees and those helping them. However, the Christians are brave and they dream of reopening the churches of their forefathers.

In Shariah-ruled Saudi Arabia, the deplorable state of religious freedom remained generally unaltered in 2007. Under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic law, apostasy (conversion to another religion) is punishable by death if the accused does not recant. There were no reports of executions for apostasy in 2007. Public non-Muslim worship is prohibited. Non-Muslim worshippers who engage in such activities risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation and sometimes torture. Like the previous year, several Christians were arrested for their involvement in religious activities in 2007.

Islam is the official religion in Iran, and all laws and regulations must be consistent with the official interpretation of Shariah law.  Although Christians are a recognized religious minority who are guaranteed religious freedom, they have reported imprisonment, harassment and discrimination because of their faith. Armenian and Assyrian churches are allowed to teach fellow countrymen in their own language, but it is forbidden to minister to people with a Muslim background (speaking Farsi). Under Iran's strict apostasy laws, any Muslim who leaves Islam to embrace another religion faces the death penalty. Many church services are being monitored by the secret police. Believers that are active in churches or the cell group movement are being pressured. They are questioned, arrested and sometimes put in jail and beaten. Individual believers are being oppressed by society, under pressure of the authorities. They have difficulty in finding and keeping a job and are easily fired when it becomes known they are Christian. Also in 2007, house church leaders and Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) were arrested and interrogated for religious activities in the privacy of their homes.

In the archipelago of the Maldives, Islam is the official state religion and all citizens must be Muslims. Shariah law is observed, which prohibits the conversion from Islam to another religion. A convert could lose citizenship. It is prohibited to practice any other religion than Islam, which is considered to be an important tool in stimulating national unity and maintenance of the government's power. Thus it is impossible to open any churches, though foreigners are allowed to practice their religion in private if they don't encourage citizens to participate. The Bible and other Christian materials cannot be imported apart from a copy for personal use. In the country -- one of the least evangelized countries on earth -- there are only a handful of indigenous believers, and they live their faith in complete secrecy because of the omnipresent social control by other Maldivians. The lack of respect for religious freedom in the Maldives remained the same during 2007. After bomb attacks against Western embassies, the government took active steps to curb radical Islam. In December 2007 there was an attack on the life of President Gayoom, which failed. Main suspects were again extremist Muslims. There were no reports this year about indigenous believers who were arrested, or of expatriate Christians deported from the country.