Days before the start of Advent, mobs in a city 320 kilometres south along the Nile from Cairo burned Coptic Orthodox Christian homes and ransacked Christian businesses before attacking a church with stones and Molotov cocktails. Why? Because of a Facebook post that allegedly mentioned the Prophet Muhammad and the attackers found offensive.
These kinds of attacks are all too common in the Middle East. In addition to their neighbours, many Christians fear terrorist attacks by ISIS and al-Qaeda, who are still carrying out beheadings and kidnapping women and children. Christians often face a Hobson’s choice: Align with a brutal dictator (as in Egypt or Syria) or be left exposed to these forces of discrimination and destruction.
It is poignant at Christmastime to consider that the birthplace of the Christian faith may become uninhabitable for its members.
The strain is evident. More than a million Christians have fled Iraq’s once robust community over the past decade after years of instability following the US invasion and ISIS horrors. Next door, Syria’s ancient Christian presence has faded due to the grinding civil war. The Iranian regime continues to pressure Christianity, both traditional and evangelical. Saudi Arabia steadfastly refuses to countenance any churches. It is the only country in the world without a single Christian place of worship.
Read the article by Knox Thames in the Sight Magazine.