Residents walk near a damaged church June 8 in Qusair, Syria, on their way to inspect their houses and collect their belongings. (CNS/Reuters/Rami Bleibel)
Christianity Forced From Its Middle East Birthplace -- The Australian/The Times
SAMIR’S children still remember their last Christmas in Maaloula, before Islamist militants overran the ancient Syrian Christian town.
“They remember the snow,” Samir says, rubbing his thumb over the tiny crucifix tattoo imprinted on his hand, as he waits for handouts at a refugee centre in Beirut. He knows, however, that it is only a matter of time before his children’s memories of their hometown fade. “It’s impossible to ever go back,” he says.
Samir and his family are part of an exodus of Christians from communities across the Middle East that is raising alarm bells about the disappearance of the faith from the region of its birth. They have been leaving the Middle East for decades, in search of better economic opportunities and, in the case of Lebanon, to escape the civil war, but, more recently, they have begun to flee because of persecution — beginning with the Christians of Iraq, whose numbers halved in the ten years after the American-led invasion.
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Update: Pope Francis’ words to Middle East -- Washington Times
My Comment: Christian persecution is not only happening in the Middle East .... Christians most persecuted and discriminated against worldwide (Irish Times).
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