Christians are Disappearing from the Middle East

Christians are Disappearing from the Middle East

g.calder

For nearly two millennia, Christianity has been woven into the fabric of the Middle East. Long before Europe adopted the religion, ancient churches flourished from Jerusalem to Damascus, Antioch, Mosul and Alexandria. Today, those communities are disappearing at an alarming pace, and not only is it going unreported, but it’s more impactful than most realise. In country after country, populations of Christians have collapsed catastrophically thanks to war, Islamist extremism, economic pressure, and quiet discrimination emptying lands where Christianity was once native. The result is the erasure of a moderating, pluralistic presence from one of the world’s most volatile regions. And, what’s even more concerning is the West’s seemingly total indifference to it. 

Christianity didn’t arrive in the Middle East – it was born there. The earliest communities spoke Aramaic and Greek rather than Latin and English, and cities such as Antioch – where believers were first called Christians – and Alexandria were cultural and theological centres centuries before Europe emerged from paganism. 

These early churches survived Roman persecution, Islamic conquest, and Ottoman rule. But what they are struggling to survive today is totally different: the modern collapse of order, combined with ideological hostility and Western disengagement. When Christians leave an area, they rarely return, and the cultural loss is permanent. 

The demographic collapse is stark. In Iraq, Christians made up 10% of the population as recently as one century ago. Today, they are well under 2%, numbering fewer than 300,000 in total. In Syria, the Christian population has fallen by more than half since 2011 – in the past 14 years alone. Lebanon was once a rare Christian-majority state in the region, but now sees its Christian share being eroded by emigration and demographic imbalance. 

Even in Egypt, home to the ancient Coptic Church, Christians face persistent discrimination, second-class legal status, and sporadic violence. Across the Middle East and North Africa, the trend is consistent: fewer Christians with less protection and more pressure to leave.  

At the start of WWI, Christians represented 20% of the region’s population. Today, it’s estimated to be less than 3%, with a decline from 3.3 to 2.9% being reported between 2010 and 2020 alone.  

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