There have been Christians in the Middle East since the time of , well , Christ . Now that two millennium-long history could be in danger . Islamist thugs have attacked dozens of churches across Egypt in the past few days , burning many of them down . The attacks seemed to be protests against the brutal military government crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood that killed many hundreds of Egyptian Islamists over the past week . Pope Tawadros II , the leader of Egypt 's Christian Copts , met publicly with top military officers as they announced the coup that removed President Mohamed Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood government from power in early July . Christians , who make up 10 % of the population , and other minorities had complained that a new constitution that had been passed by the Morsy government infringed on their rights . For some Islamist militants , now it 's payback time . According to one report , 52 churches across Egypt were attacked in 24 hours last week . The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has counted at least 30 churches attacked , along with other Christian facilities . After Morsy was removed from power , a mob armed with axes hacked a Christian businessman to death near Luxor in southern Egypt and then continued their rampage in the village of Nagaa Hassan , burning dozens of Christian homes and killing three other Christians . Today there are more than 10 million Christians in the Middle East and they make up an estimated 5 % of the Middle East 's population . A century ago they made up an estimated 20 % . Much of this fall can be attributed to factors such as emigration and the high birth rates of many Arab Muslims , but some of it is also attributable to the increasing marginalization and targeting of Christians ; a worrying trend being seen not just in Egypt but also in other Arab countries . Take Syria . Many Syrian Christians have tacitly supported the regime of President Bashar al-Assad , which draws much of its strength from the small Shia Alawite sect and therefore has historically favored and protected Syria 's other religious minorities . As a result , the jihadists who have come to dominate a significant portion of the Syrian rebel movement have supplemented their war against the government with attacks that target Christians . On June 27 , a suicide bombing in a Christian area of Damascus killed at least four people . Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels are suspected of killing an Italian priest who had spent most of his life rehabilitating a monastery north of the Syrian capital of Damascus and who disappeared last month . The Rev . Paolo Dall'Oglio had reportedly been trying to secure the release of several hostages in the custody of an al Qaeda-aligned group . Meanwhile , in March in Benghazi , Libya , where a militant attack on a U.S. government complex left four Americans dead in September 2012 , around 60 Christians were rounded up by extremists and handed over to the government on suspicion of immigrating from Egypt illegally . The militants tortured several of their captives , killing one of them . That bout of vigilantism followed the arrest in February of four Christians accused of proselytizing to Muslim Libyans . The consequence of such attacks and harassment has been an exodus of Christians from the region . Residents of northeastern Syria , where Christians have historically been concentrated , estimate that one-third of the Christians there have fled the country during the past two years . Similarly in Iraq , since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 , the Christian Iraqi population may have dropped by as much as 50 % , according to a CIA assessment . And despite making up only about 3 % of the Iraqi population , Christians accounted for half the Iraqis who fled the country in 2010 , about 200,000 people . Egypt 's religious tensions have a longer history than the recent clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and Christians . Although then-President Hosni Mubarak kept a tight lid on the country 's Islamist extremists , clashes between Muslims and Christians erupted sporadically throughout the '90s . But since Mubarak 's fall , extremist violence against Christians has picked up in Egypt . In early October 2011 , Egypt saw its worst instance of sectarian violence in 60 years , when two-dozen Christians died in clashes with the military . As a result of these kinds of attacks , by one estimate , around 100,000 Christians left Egypt in 2011 . This kind of homogenization has happened before in the Middle East , which boasted a sizable Jewish population in the '50s . But with the creation of the state of Israel and the rise of Arab nationalism and then Islamism , the region has become more hostile to non-Muslims . Around World War II there were 100,000 Jews in Egypt , a community that had existed in Egypt since the time of the pharaohs . Now , there are a handful of synagogues operating in Cairo . They are heavily guarded and generally empty as they cater only to the few dozen elderly Jews who are still left in Egypt . One can only hope that this is not to be the fate of the Christians of the Middle East .
non-Muslims have been targeted in Egypt , Egypt and Libya . Bergen : Egypt 's Christians largely supported the coup that overturned Christians regime . In turn , Christians have been attacked by Morsy over the past week , he says . Bergen : The region has become increasingly hostile to Islamists .