The Death Throes of Indigenous Christians in the Middle East: Assyrians Living Under the Islamic State

Abstract

Christianity emerged in the Middle East, became a majority religion, and thereafter expanded into various geographical directions. Although the faith suffered a decline under Arab Muslim rule already in the eleventh century, the region nonetheless remained an important spiritual centre of Christianity until about the thirteenth century. Today, however, local Christians express fear about the end of their existence in this region, their ancestral home. This fear is also shared by scholars and experts who ask whether Christianity has a future in the Middle East (Jenkins 2004, Tamcke 2016).