Christians in the Middle East are becoming rare and this is due to the oppression put upon them and the outright murder of them by the Islamic majority. Christians are being forced to either give up their Christianity and convert to Islam or they are killed and in some cases they are not even given that option as radical Muslim terrorists simply attack churches and summarily kill all Christians inside as they worship God. The story is the same all across the Middle East and in nations where Muslims are the majority. Yes, Christians are being persecuted and slaughtered like sheep and this is no more apparent than in Muslim nations around the world.
Ironically, the Middle East is the very birthplace of Christendom and prior to the Muslim conquest of the region out of Saudi Arabia after the Muslim Prophet Mohammad founded Islam this region was predominately Christian in faith. As Islam expanded our of the Arabian desert and into other areas of the Middle East Muslims faced strong opposition. Some of Mohammad’s followers fled to Ethiopia where they sought the protection of the Christian king of Ethiopia. The king gave them that protection despite the fact that the Muslims had a different faith other than his own. He gave them sanctuary and protection and there some of them remained seeking to make converts to this newly found religion.
In Syria when the first Muslims arrived they had no place to worship. There was a church in Damascus that was shared by the Christians and Jews there. Seeing that the Muslims had no place to worship the Christians and the Jews invited them to use the church as well. And so, for a time, the three faiths shared the same center of worship with Christians worshiping on Sundays, Jews on Saturdays, and the Muslims on Fridays. And the Muslims there would often attend Christian festivals and participate! Eventually, the Jews built their own synagogue and the Christians built a new church and sold the old church to the Muslims. The Muslims then turned it into the first mosque in Syria and today it is known as the Grand Mosque in Damascus.
I point this bit if history out to show you that there was a time when the three faiths tolerated and respected each other and there was a time when Christian kings protected the Muslims and gave them refuge from their many enemies and yet today it seems that the Muslims have forgotten this time ever existed. And now they see Christians and Jews as their mortal enemies and seek to slaughter them like sheep. How sad our modern times have become. But that’s not all because as Muslims are reducing Christians to near zero in the Middle East the larger world of Christians seem oblivious to it all. Where is the outrage? Where is the demands that Muslim nations stop the slaughter? Why do modern Christians sit by doing and saying nothing as their brethren die in mass in this historic land? The silence is not only deafening but beyond tragic and somehow I don’t think sitting by silently as the brethren are slaughtered is what Jesus would do!! Continue Reading