Persecution of Christians in Islamic Middle East
Islamophobia is a hate crime in the United States and in the West, in general, with even non-offenders of Islam dreading an accusation of Islamophobia. Conversely, in the Muslim majority states, particularly in the Middle East, Christians have been persecuted, discriminated and abused. The judicial system in most of these states actually encourages anti-Christian persecution.
In Western capitals, where religion has become an individual matter and multiculturalism a virtue, Muslims have taken control of the streets in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. Yet one would be hard-pressed to find any instances of Christians parading in the name of Christianity in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Gaza, Istanbul, Tehran, Doha or Riyadh.
Western politicians seem to be ignoring the suffering of Christians in the Middle East. Christian persecution is characterized by a “threshold-genocide” status, resulting from a combination of extremist violence, legal discrimination and mass displacement. Christians in the Middle East were 12.7% of the region’s population in 1900 but only 4.1% in 2025.
• There is a long history of persecution and violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt, especially in the Minya governorate.
• In Iraq, the Christian population has plummeted from approximately 1.5 million in 2003 to roughly 150,000 today. While ISIS has been largely defeated, its “aftershocks” remain, and many families are unable to return to destroyed homes in the Nineveh Plains.
• Iran’s Christians, especially those who have converted from Islam, are treated as “national security threats.” As of early 2026, many continue to be sentenced to long prison terms for “propaganda” or practicing their faith in underground house churches.
• In Syria, the fall of Bashar Assad in late 2024, Christians face heightened insecurity. The transitional government’s reliance on Islamist factions is creating risks of targeted violence and societal and religious marginalization. Key examples include the 2025 bombing of a major church in Damascus and intimidation by armed jihadists.
• Turkey was ranked 41st among the 50 countries where Christians face the most challenges in practicing their faith, by Open Doors World Watch List.
Regarding Turkey, this year’s findings highlight a troubling mix of cultural, legal and social challenges that continue to marginalize the Christian population, which includes the deportation of foreign Christian workers considered to be a “security threat.”
In 1915, Turkey perpetrated a genocide by murdering 1.5 million Christian Armenians. More than a century later, Turkey’s current Islamist dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, still holds Christians in dangerously low regard.
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Christians in the West Bank and Gaza face significant persecution and hardship that has resulted in a dwindling population (less than 2% in the West Bank, around 1,000 individuals in Gaza as of 2025).
• In Gaza, Christians experience violence and coercion to convert. In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Christians made up the majority until the late 1980s. Today, Christians account for less than 10% of the population.
I interviewed the Christian mayor of Bethlehem, Elias Freij, in 1991 and asked him where the Christian population was. He responded by pointing his finger westward and said, “Santiago de Chile.”
• Qatari Christians, living inside the country, must use extreme caution when gathering for worship, while Christians who are not citizens must worship in a government-controlled compound that is closed to Qatari citizens. About 65% of the country’s population is composed of foreign workers, mostly Filipinos. Foreign Christians in Qatar have been deported for evangelistic activities among native Qataris.
• Saudi Arabia severely restricts Christian practice and bans public worship, churches and proselytizing. Those who openly practice or convert from Islam are at risk of arrest, detention and deportation. Christians, especially converts, face surveillance, discrimination and potential mistreatment.
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The demise of ideologies, such as pan-Arabism and secular socialism in the Arab world, opened the door for Islamism to thrive once again. Radical Islamism in Iran and Yemen made Christian life in these states virtually impossible.
While the situation in the rest of the Muslim Middle East is not much better; the mixture of hatred for the West, which is identified with Christianity, has placed the decreasing number of Christians in the region at risk. Fearing to offend authoritarian Arab regimes and feeling colonial guilt, Western states have done little to alleviate the poor condition of Christians in the region.
Ironically, Western guilt has also manifested itself by allowing millions of Middle Eastern Muslims to come to Europe and America, rather than being absorbed in the vast oil-rich lands of Saudi Arabia, Libya and Algeria.
While antisemitism in the Muslim Middle East is rife, hardly any Jews are left in the region. So, the next best target for the Islamist regimes? Christian believers.
It is high time for the United States and its Western allies to settle on reciprocity. Treat jihad-inclined Muslims in the West as Christians are being treated in the Middle East.
Joseph Puder is founder and director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI).
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
