Christians being persecuted

With one exception, Christians throughout the countries of the Middle East are at risk or on the run, their churches burned, their property expropriated, their personal safety in peril from thugs intent on beatings, rapes, and murders.

The one exception -- where Christians flee to rather than from, where they increase rather than decrease in numbers -- is Israel.

A century ago, the Middle East was about 20 per cent Christian. Today, following waves of persecutions, the proportion is 4 per cent and falling. Some fear that the Middle East -- the very birthplace of Christianity -- may soon be all but emptied of Christians.

Gaza, for example, is continuing to lose its few remaining Christians -- 3,000 of them all told, or about one-sixth of 1 per cent of the total population -- amid anti-Christian violence and an Islamist government that increasingly limits Christian institutions.

In Israel, the history of decline is reversed. The Christian community of 34,000 at the time the modern state of Israel was created in 1948 has more than quadrupled to 158,000. Part of that quadrupling stems from a natural population increase -- the Christian fertility rate modestly exceeds the 2.1 children per woman required to maintain a population. Most of it stems from Christian immigration into Israel, often following upheavals in neighboring countries or far-flung parts of the world.