Prince Charles said Christianity is disappearing from the Middle East — the very region of its birth — due primarily to a campaign of persecution by extremist Muslims and fundamentalist Islamists.
“It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants,” he said, The Blaze reported.
The British royal made the remarks to various religious leaders, after he visited with Christians that reported to him the persecutions they or their fellow faith followers faced in Egypt, Iraq and Syria.
He said, in The Telegraph: “Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ. … Yet today the Middle East and North Africa has the lowest concentration of Christians in the world – just 4 percent of the population, and it is clear that the Christian population has dropped dramatically over the last century and is falling still further.”
The prince faulted a Muslim society that used “intimidation, false accusation and organized persecution” for the exodus of Christians from the region, The Telegraph reported. He said that if the atmosphere of persecution didn’t end, “we [will] all lose something immensely and irreplaceably precious when such a rich tradition dating back 2,000 years begins to disappear.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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