Christianity Facing Extinction in Many Middle Eastern Countries

Mark 13:13 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Aid groups told Fox News on Tuesday that Christianity could vanish in the Middle East within the next decade as many Christians are being killed, ran out of their homes, or forced to renounce their faith in order to live.

As Islamic State radicals plague Syria and Iraq and continuously kill Christians and others with different religious views than their own, other areas are continuing to put pressure on Christians including Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations.

A report done by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need states that the Christian population in Iraq was 1.5 million in 2003, and now in 2015, there is estimated to about 275,000. The numbers continue to dwindle as Christians are killed, living in secret, or flee. In Iraq alone, a dozen Christian families flee each and every day according to 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Falls Church, Va., nonprofit dedicated to promoting religious freedom worldwide.

“Unless the global community gets involved, we will witness the loss of Christian witnesses in a land that is biblically significant,” Elijah Brown, executive vice president for 21st Century Wilberforce, told FoxNews.com.

He told Fox News that Iraq’s second largest city has been purged of Christians after ISIS took over.

“Last Christmas was the first time that bells did not ring out in the city of Mosul in 2,000 years,” Brown said. “I think that speaks to the reality that hundreds of thousands of Christian families are living on the edge of extinction.”

And while Christians in Syria and Iraq continue to flee in fear of ISIS, one Middle Eastern country was mentioned in the report as being tolerant and protective of their Christian community: Egypt. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has vowed numerous times to protect the Coptic Christians and even attended Christmas church services with them as a sign of tolerance and solidarity.

“Such a development holds out a potential beacon of hope for Christians and others in the Middle East against a backdrop of growing Islamism,” the report stated.

While the Middle East is the most well-known area for Christian persecution, Christianity in Africa and Asia is in danger too. Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group, has killed several Christians in Nigeria and has sparked other extremists to do so in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of the continent. Christians located in Asia face persecution from nationalist religious movements such as Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist in countries such as Pakistan, Hindu, and Myanmar. In most of these countries, Christianity is viewed as a foreign, Western practice, according to Fox News.

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