Christians in most of the Middle East, large swathes of Africa and increasingly in parts of Asia face a grim reality.

In recent years, scores of Christians observing Easter and Christmas services have been killed by Islamist terrorists in churches in Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. In countries where Christians are the minority they face discrimination, hostility and sometimes deadly violence.

Christianity predates Islam by about 600 years but in much of the Middle East the former is disappearing, including in Christ’s birthplace, Bethlehem, where the Christian population has fallen from about 85 per cent in the 1950s to a minority that may be as low as 12 per cent, according to former mayor Vera Baboun.

In many parts of the Middle East, the Christian population has all but disappeared in what has been variously described as slow extermination, ethnic cleansing and religious genocide. According to the latest research by Christian group Open Doors, one in three Christians in the region experience “high levels of persecution”; across Asia the figure is one in six.

In Pakistan blasphemy laws are used to persecute the Christian minority with reports of forced conversions, marriages and church attacks.

The plight of Christians in parts of Africa is harrowing, with regular reports of violence in countries such as Nigeria, Eritrea, The Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Kenya and Somalia.

In Nigeria alone, 3731 Christians were killed for their faith in 2018. Many more were forced to abandon their homes and villages to escape Islamist extremists.

Those attacks don’t receive the coverage that accompany attacks in the West but the victims are just as worthy of your sympathy.

Read full column here.