What has happened to Christians living in Israel and neighboring areas?
The Christian tradition in the Middle East goes back to the first century, but the most important date is 636, the Muslim Arab Conquest. Before that date the Middle East was inhabited by mostly Christians and Jews, subjects of the Christian Byzantine Empire. Afterward, Muslim Arabs dominated the region. Exceeding even the Roman’s zeal for conquest, the Arabs wanted to muslimize everyone by force and over thirteen centuries of continuous oppression, they have largely succeeded, leaving only a few struggling groups. At the beginning of the 20th century, rising nationalist feelings in the region led the Copts of Egypt, the Assyro-Chaldeans of Iraq, the South Sudanese, and the Lebanese Christians, to try to obtain independence. But the Islamic powers in the region denied these Christians their right to self-determination. At the expense of the Middle East Christians, Arab identity and Islamic domination were firmly established. Only the Jews of Israel were able to establish a non-Islamic n
