Who is snuffing whom?
Christians in Israel, neighboring areas
After World War II, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, was 80% Christian and Nazareth 60%. Now those percentages are 20% and 30% respectively, and are shrinking. Jerusalem Christians were a plurality in the 1920s; today, they number under 2 percent of the city's population.
In Jordan, a relatively moderate nation, 94% of the population practices Sunni Islam. The percentage of Christians in Jordan (including the West Bank) in 1952 was 18% but has fallen to under 4%, with the majority being Greek Orthodox. Two percent of the population follows other religions, including Shi’a Islam.
<LI class=quote>... in a single month during 1998, Egyptian police detained about 1,200 Christians in Al-Kosheh, near Luxor in Upper Egypt. Seized in groups of up to 50 at a time, many were nailed to crosses or manacled to doors with their legs tied together. Then they were beaten and tortured with electric shocks to their genitals while police denounced them as "infidels."
Although the population of modern Turkey is more than 99% muslim, less than one hundred years ago, under the predecessor Ottoman Empire, it was about 30% Christian. The situation changed when some two million Armenian Christians were massacred between 1905 and 1918, a genocide which the Turkish government still denies.
In Saudi Arabia, Christians are less than 1% of the 21-million population, and the public practice of Christianity is virtually unknown since
by law there are no Christians in Saudi Arabia.