Christianity Beginning 'To Disappear' in Its Birthplace, Warns Prince of Wales

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prince of Wales delivers impassioned personal plea for Christians in the Middle East, warning ‘organised persecution’ by Islamist fundamentalists could sever 2,000-year link

Christianity is beginning “to disappear” in its own birthplace after 2,000 years because of a wave of “organised persecution” across the Middle East, the Prince of Wales has warned.

In an impassioned intervention, he said that the world is in danger of losing something “irreplaceably precious” with communities tracing their history back to the time of Jesus now under threat from fundamentalist Islamist militants.

Speaking openly of his own Christian faith, he said he had become “deeply troubled” by the plight of those he described as his “brothers and sisters in Christ”.

And the Prince, a long-standing advocate of dialogue between religions, voiced personal dismay at seeing his work over the last 20 years to “build bridges and dispel ignorance” being deliberately destroyed by those attempting to exploit the Arab Spring for their own ends.

He devoted a Christmas reception for religious leaders at Clarence House to draw attention to the threat Christians have come under in recent months across Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other parts of the region. » | John Bingham, Religious Affairs Editor | Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Iraq's Battle to Save Its Christian Souls: 'Christians Are Finished Here'

Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians have dwindled from more than a million to as little as 200,000. Colin Freeman reports on attempts to stem the exodus from Iraq's churches

Read the Sunday Telegraph article here and comment. | Colin Greeman, Baghdad | Sunday, December 15, 2013
My comment:

The first disgrace is that the MSM have taken so long to bring this to the attention of the people in the West. The second disgrace is that the Christian West – yes, the Christian West – has done/is doing very little about the plight of the Christians in the ME.

We continue to give the 'Religion of Peace' a pass when in actual fact we shouldn't. We should be challenging the aggressive Muslims at every level and at every stage. – © Mark

This comment appears here too.

Islam Spreads In The West, Christianity In The Mideast
RIGHT SIDE NEWS: There are well over a billion Muslims in the world today, and the numbers keep growing. Islam is not only prospering in Middle East countries, but in the West as well. Muslim neighborhoods have sprouted up across mainland Europe and the UK, as well as in the good old United States – parts of the world considered predominantly Christian.

Should Christians be concerned? Certainly. Christians should be more concerned, perhaps, that too many Christian churches are weak and worldly and full of mushy, lifeless messages. If the Western Church were full of the Spirit of God and gushing life, there would be little to draw people to Islam.

Both Christianity and Islam, however, are missionary religions. Christian missionaries and evangelists spread the Good News that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and Muslims spread Islam. Yet, if people decide they want to leave Christianity, they are free to go. Jesus never chased people down and forced them to follow him. Judgment might await unbelievers, but believers do not pick up stones to hasten the journey. In fact, many Christians pray desperately for their loved ones who walk away from Christ, waiting with hope for the prodigal's safe return.

Leaving Islam, however, is not such an easy thing. Even in the West, Muslim young people resist telling their families they have converted to Christianity out of honest fear. And while Muslims are free to spread their faith in the West, Christians are not necessarily free to preach the Gospel to Muslims. Islam Spreads In The West, Christianity In The Mideast >>> Koinonia House | June 5, 2008

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