Pervasive persecution, at times amounting to genocide, has seen millions of Christians in the Middle East killed, kidnapped, uprooted, imprisoned and discriminated against.
It has taken a toll on the survival of the oldest Christian communities in the world, located in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, where the Abrahamic faith was born.
Earlier, Christians in the Middle East were the bridge between warring factions of Shia and Sunni Muslims. Schools and social services run by them contributed to society at large by serving the entire community, regardless of faith. Christians in the Middle East stood for tolerance, democracy, human rights and freedom of religion.
A century ago, Christians comprised 20% of the population in the Middle East, but currently, the region is home to less than 4% or roughly 15 million Christians.
“Iraq, which housed the Church for hundreds of years, will soon be without the Christian faith.”
An enduring — and eventually flourishing — Christian presence in Iraq was the chief aim of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, when he invited Pope Francis to Iraq in March this year.
More than 500,000 Christians left Iraq due to the sectarian conflict that started with the self-styled caliphate of ISIS in 2013. Earlier, the 2003 US-led invasion had wreaked havoc on the oil-rich country.