With the Arab Spring, we've seen an increase in Christianophobic attacks - both inside and outside the Arab world.
I've noted a growing campaign to suicide bomb Christian targets starting in Iraq and spreading to Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. Nigerian Christians are victims of monthly suicide bombings. We've also witnessed numerous unruly mob attacks on Christian communities in Egypt and Pakistan; Tunisian churches are targeted and their crosses smeared with feces.
Unfortunately, the uptick in Christianophobia appears part of a larger campaign against Christians in the Middle East. In most of the region, Christian citizens are treated as second class citizens or live under apartheid. Hate preachers and religious scholars continually inflame the masses on satellite TV or houses of worship.
The rise of religious political parties has trumpeted the re-emergence of greater strangle holds of religion in civil society and corresponded with mob attacks of last year.
I suspect a new chapter unfolding in the Middle East - one less religiously diverse and more intolerant. And if Christian communities continue to exist in some countries, they will face greater levels of discrimination - such as what Jews and Christians experience in the Islamic Republic of Iran.