Muslim Persecution of Christians

.Crucified Again

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/09/10/%E2%80%98crucified-again%E2%80%99-an-important-book-about-plight-of-middle-east-christians-review/

‘Crucified Again’ an Important Book About Plight of Middle East Christians (REVIEW)

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 8:50 AM 0 COMMENTS

A burning church in Egypt. Photo: IPT News.

JNS.org – In an unprecedented wave of violence against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community last month, Islamic terrorists targeted several dozen churches, schools, businesses and homes. The terrorists, many sympathetic to Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood or ultraconservative Salafi groups, blamed Egypt’s Christians for July’s ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The recent attacks on Christianity in Egypt underscore the growing threat facing Middle Eastern Christians in the region that was the birthplace of their faith. But violence against Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere in the Middle East does not represent the full extent of global attacks on the religion—millions of Christians throughout the world, from Indonesia to Nigeria, are persecuted on a daily basis.

But what common threat links these seemingly unrelated and diverse Christian communities together? Raymond Ibrahim, the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Shillman Analyst, provides his answer in the new and timely book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.”

The Middle East is facing a tremendous decline in its indigenous Christian populations. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, just 0.6 percent of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians now live in the Middle East and North Africa. Christians make up only 4 percent of the region’s total inhabitants, drastically down from 20 percent a century ago, making Middle East Christians the smallest regional Christian minority in the world. While there are a number of reasons factoring into this drop—such as declining Christian birthrates, greater affluence and education, connections in the West—the systematic persecution of Christians lies at the heart of their decline in the region.