Donald Trump's presidency will fail if he does not protect Christians around the world, a religious persecution charity has warned.
Open Doors released its annual World Watch List documenting the 50 worst countries to be a Christian on Wednesday.
David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, warned the President-elect that religious liberty "is the central issue that they're [the administration] going to have to deal with, whether you're looking at it through the lens of immigration, whether you're looking at it through the lens of terrorism".
Curry, who met Trump's team on Tuesday according to RNS, added: "We're hopeful that they take it seriously. If they don't I think we will see this administration fail."
The annual list was topped by North Korea, as it has been for more than 15 years.
But it also showed a startling rise in persecution of Christians in India. The world's fastest growing economy has witnessed a surge in the number of attacks against Christians, a trend that has also been seen in Yemen, Bangladesh and Laos.
Launching the report in London, CEO of Open Doors UK Lisa Pearce said: "This year there is a clear pattern of rising religious intolerance across the Indian sub-continent which affects many millions of Christians.
"Religious nationalists attempt to forcibly convert people to the dominant faith of their nation, often turning to violence when community discrimination and non-violent oppression do not succeed in imposing their religious beliefs on minority Christians. These Christians are often from the lower castes, such as the Dalits in India who face huge socio-economic problems – they are an easy target for extreme nationalists."
At a similar launch in Washington, Curry added: "2016 was the worst year of persecution of Christians on record, with a shocking 215 million Christians experiencing high levels of persecution for their faith. Nearly one in every 12 Christians in the world today lives in an area or in a culture in which Christianity is illegal, forbidden or punished.
"And yet today the world is largely silent on the shocking wave of religious intolerance."
