Nigeria Christians attend the Palm Sunday mass, at St Theresa’s Catholic Church, in Yola, Nigeria. Sunday, March 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

A new study has discovered that of all the religions in the world, Christians are the group facing the most persecution, with levels so bad they’re nearly qualifying as genocide.

According to the BBC, a recently released report found that Christians faced more persecution than the other group and indicated that the reason this isn’t more widely known is due to the fact that it’s politically incorrect to talk about it.

The report warned that Christianity is in danger of disappearing from some parts of the world, with the frequency and severity only getting worse as time goes on, and quickly approaching genocidal levels:

The interim report said the main impact of “genocidal acts against Christians is exodus” and that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from parts of the Middle East.

It warned the religion “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.

“Evidence shows not only the geographic spread of anti-Christian persecution, but also its increasing severity,” the Bishop wrote.

“In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN.”

The issue is rarely talked about, even on the governmental level, due to many believing that showing sympathy for religion often associated with colonizers would be unpopular with the people. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that it’s rarely considered that Christians weren’t just spreading their religion during colonialization, but even during times when they were being forced into regions as well.

“That has perhaps created an awkwardness in talking about this issue – the role of missionaries was always a controversial one and that has, I think, also led some people to shy away from this topic,” said Hunt.

“What we have forgotten in that atmosphere of political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are some of the poorest people on the planet,” he added.