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Christians Are Under Siege in the Middle East
(Christian Science Monitor) Christa Case Bryant - The First Baptist Church of Bethlehem was bombed 14 times during the first intifada, and is now facing a legal battle with the Palestinian Authority, which doesn't recognize it as a church. It was founded three decades ago by the Rev. Naim Khoury, who survived a bullet to the shoulder from a sniper while in the church parking lot five years ago. Christianity is under assault across the entire Middle East. Iraq has lost at least half of its Christians over the past decade. Egypt has seen the worst spate of anti-Christian violence in 700 years. In Syria, jihadists are killing Christians and burying them in mass graves. Christians now make up only 5% of the population of the Middle East, down from 20% a century ago. As political Islam gains support, Christians can no longer find refuge in a shared Arab identity with their Muslim neighbors.