|
Trending Topics
|
In Bethlehem, the Christian Population Is Shrinking and Afraid of the Muslim Majority
(The Times-UK) Melanie Swan - In the modern West Bank city of Bethlehem, the centuries-old Christian population is dwindling and afraid. The city's Christian population has dropped from 84% of the total a century ago to 20% today, and is falling further in the face of discrimination and threats from elements of the Muslim majority. "There is a campaign to buy Christian homes and businesses and on Friday you will hear the sheikh on the loudspeakers from the mosques speaking against Jews and Christians...it's hatred you hear in their prayers," one Christian leader told The Times. "They are pushing us out. You live among a people who doesn't want you. Christians are afraid and if they have the chance to leave, they do." Khalil Sayegh, a senior research fellow at the Philos Project, a Christian advocacy group which conducted a recent poll of 1,000 Palestinian Christians, said the survey "reveals a very high degree of concerns over sectarian discrimination targeting Christians by their Palestinian Muslim neighbors."