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The Greatest Threat to Middle East Christians Is Islamist Extremism - Not Israel
(Telegraph-UK) Jake Wallis Simons - Which country offers the strongest legal protections and lowest risk of persecution for Christians in the Middle East? Where do believers enjoy the greatest safety and the richest opportunities to flourish? The answer, of course, is Israel. Yet the new Archbishop of Canterbury's pilgrimage to the Holy Land last week sought to highlight "stories of the immense hardships" facing Palestinian Christians, apparently at the hands of Israel. At the end of her pilgrimage, Sarah Mullally released an open letter to Anglicans calling for a "viable two-state solution," with Jerusalem as a "shared capital. Strangely, she did not mention that Ramallah had previously rejected this precise offer when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tabled it in 2008. The charity Open Doors publishes the annual World Watch List, one of the best-known indexes of persecution against Christians globally. The charity says: "In Palestine, anyone born into a Christian family faces all kinds of opposition to their faith. And converts from Islam who become followers of Jesus Christ often face harsh persecution." Did the Archbishop mention the "20-year-old woman who converted at the end of 2024 [and] was killed by her family in February 2025"? By far the greatest threat to Christians around the world is Islamist extremism. The Jewish state, by contrast, a wonderful place for Christians, stands on the frontlines against the very enemy that comes for followers of Christ. Israel, despite her failings, is on the side of the angels. If the Church is to be a beacon of truth, the Archbishop should loudly proclaim this. While essentially ignoring the true enemies of the Church and implying that Israel is a malevolent force, she is falling victim to trendy bigotry and has lent her Anglican stamp to the wave of Israelophobia that engulfs us.