Persecution drives Christians out of region

from their homes, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned and discriminated against, the report finds.

The Justice and Development (AK) party of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for instance, is highlighted for denigrating Christians.

Hunt, an Anglican, has made the issue of Christian persecution one of the major themes of his foreign secretaryship.

The report shows that a century ago Christians comprised 20 per cent of the population in the Middle East and North Africa, but since then the proportion has fallen to less than 4 per cent, or roughly 15 million

people. In the Middle East and North Africa, the report says, “forms of persecution ranging from routine discrimination in education, employment and social life up to genocidal attacks against Christian communities have led to a significant exodus of Christians from this region since the turn of the century.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has also caused the majority of Palestinian Christians to leave their homeland. The population of Palestinian Christians has dropped from 15 per cent to 2 per cent.

The report identifies three drivers of persecution: political failure creating a fertile ground for religious extremism; a turn to religious conservatism in countries such as Algeria and Turkey; and institutional weaknesses around justice. ■