Monday, February 22, 2010

Disappearance of Christians from the Middle East

Christians in the Arab world who played an important role in developing pan-Arab movements in the 1950s and enriched its culture have serious concerns about their future in the Middle East.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians have left and many Christian communities were uprooted. The reasons behind the mass exodus differ from one country to the other, but one common factor is the collapse of pan-Arab nationalism and the rise of Islamist movements.

Al Sharqiya satellite television in Baghdad reported that out of the 1.4 million Iraqis Christians who lived in Iraq before 2003, only 800,000 remain. Al Jazeera English also reported that over half of the estimated 20,000 Christians who lived in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq prior to 2003 have already left. MORE HERE

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