‘The Most Important International Story Not Being Told by the Mainstream Media’: Christian Persecution in the Middle East

By Benjamin Weinthal and Giulio Meotti – “The case of the Iranian pastor sentenced to death for his faith has attached a human face to the horrible situation of Christians in the Middle East…

Our colleague, the former New York Times reporter Clifford D. May, writes that ‘persecution of Christians in numerous Muslim-majority countries is the most important international story not being told by the mainstream media.’

Take the example of Habib Bastam, an Iranian who converted to Christianity and sought political asylum in Romania. In 2009, one of Tehran’s star chamber courts sentenced him to death for ‘apostasy.’ Earlier this month, the Romanians denied him asylum.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman Leonard Leo declared that Arab Christians face increasing persecution. ‘Christianity in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the U.S. troop withdrawal,’ Leo wrote.

After Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed, 100,000 Christians fled Egypt in what the Egyptian Union of Human Rights called a ‘mass exodus.’ In the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the radical Islamic terror group Hamas, 3,000 Christians face persecution…

Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace.

Unsurprisingly, but nonetheless largely ignored by the media, Israel is the only country in the Middle East where a Christian population is vibrant and growing. As documented in the Jerusalem Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israel’s Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000 strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.

In Egypt, the provisional military rulers’ traditional hostility toward radical Islamic groups has led them to embrace the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood.

The public backlash has empowered more radical Salafists, who’ve been implicated in deadly attacks on Coptic Christian churches.

In 2005, Syria launched a nefarious campaign against Lebanon’s Christians, targeting pro-Western politicians and journalists.

In Saudi Arabia, religious police beat and torture Christians…” Read more.