Syrian Christians are experiencing their own version of what the Associated Press describes – in the context of Egypt – as a “stepped-up hate campaign” by Islamists.

In Egypt the pretexts used by Islamists are political. Supporters of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi have leveled conspiracy theories linking the country’s Copt minority to his removal from power. In Syria the stakes are military:

Assyrian refugees from the town of al-Thawrah in north-central Syria report being threatened with death should they return to their homes. Jabhat al-Nusra fighters seized the town and its strategic dam on the Euphrates River in February. The Assyrians are descendants of Syria’s original inhabitants who have lived in the area since before the advent of Islam. They adhere to a form of Christianity that broke ranks with Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy in the 5th century. Christians saw their properties seized by the Islamists and their possessions sold on the black market to buy weapons and ammunition.

Christians in both Egypt and Syria – and across the Middle East and north Africa – trace themselves directly to communities predating the Muslim conquest those regions. Recent years have seen dramatic purges of Christians by Islamist regimes, which have among other things promoted “religious intolerance and introduce[d] Sharia and blasphemy laws.” The only Middle Eastern country whose Christian population is growing is Israel.

[Photo: Gigi Ibrahim / Flickr]