Sad. The Christian communities in the Middle East are the oldest in the world. They have endured for two thousand years. We may see them all destroyed, forever, in our lifetime.

There is an etnic cleansing going on in the Middle East. Harassment, religious pressure, emigration and demographic developments have sharply reduced the numbers of non-Islamic populations throughout the Middle East. Many are on the brink of extinction.

Tragically, non-Muslims have been very influential in Arabian nationalist movements the oast century. Their project of secular states, of an Arabian revival, seems to have largely failed. A sad irony. Rivalled in irony perhaps only by Iraq, in which Christians enjoyed a reasonable status ten years ago, but which is now etnically cleansed of non-Muslims.