A new report details the pervasive persecution of Christians in parts of the Middle East, The Guardian is reporting.
And the report, commission by British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, said the persecution sometimes amounts to genocide.
It noted millions of Christians have been uprooted from their homes in the region. Many of them have been killed imprisoned, kidnapped and discriminated against.
“The overwhelming majority (80%) of persecuted religious believers are Christians,” the report said.
“I think we have shied away from talking about Christian persecution because we are a Christian country and we have a colonial past, so sometimes there’s a nervousness there,” Hunt said. “What we have forgotten in this atmosphere of political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are some of the poorest people on the planet. In the Middle East the population of Christians used to be about 20%; now it’s 5%.”
The report noted “forms of persecution ranging from routine discrimination in education, employment and social life up to genocidal attacks against Christian communities have led to a significant exodus of Christian believers from this region since the turn of the century.”
“In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities has reached an alarming stage.
And the report added: “The level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide…”
And the BBC said the report claimed that Christianity faced being “wiped out” from part of the Middle East.
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