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Wednesday, January 18, 2006

It's not just Bethlehem, it's everywhere:

Christians are Leaving the Middle East

There are between 12 and 15 million Christians in the Middle East, almost half of them living in Egypt. The exact figures are hard to establish because of the lack of official records and continued migration. Lebanon, with slightly more than one-million Christians, has the highest ratio: about 30 percent of its population is Christian. Most other Middle Eastern countries are less then 10 percent Christian.

Demographers say the Christian population has declined noticeably in most Middle Eastern countries since the beginning of the 20th century. Fred Strickert, professor of religion at Wartburg College in Iowa, says Christians became a minority in the Middle East after the spread of Islam during the 7th Century, but they continued to play an important role, until the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

"In 1908, there was an internal revolution. They called it the Young Turks' revolt. A new group of people came into power and many of them were very biased against the Christians," says Professor Strickert. "They were attempting to draft them into the army and things like that. There was a mass migration from all places in the Middle East - Lebanon, Syria, and Jerusalem - and, by then, many of the Christians, partly because of Christian missionaries, had benefited from schools and hospitals, and sought better conditions in the West for economics. And so, there was a large migration at the very beginning of the 20th Century."...

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1 Comment

u said many many of asian /middle east christians leaving to.
but in pakistan in euoropeon embassy's mostly visa officers are pakistani muslims so mostly they refuses visa to pakistani christian its our personnel experience
there are lot of pakistani christian nurses male and female who had applied multiple time for uk but the muslim visa officers refuses to them.and moreover none of christian coutries help to pakistani christians they also help to muslims even the muslims uses that help against the christian countries in the form of bombs

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