The charity says labelling the believers in the region this way is both unhelpful and degrading.
Explaining why, Tim Livesey, Embrace the Middle East’s CEO told Premier: “It’s very demoralising and it’s the opposite in a sense I think of what Christians in the Middle East would like us to be thinking.
“They would like us to think that they are in many ways really very special and within the Christian global context, very important – and they are.”
Christians make up approximately 5 per cent of the population in the Middle East – down from 20 per cent in the early 20th century.
However, Livesey said the decline can’t solely be put down to the desire by extreme elements within the Muslim majority to eradicate Christianity from the region.
“Persecution is pretty rare… when ISIS was [more active] in Iraq for example – for sure there was persecution of Christians but also of course of non-Christians,” he said.
“So it’s not to say that there isn’t violence in the region – there is – and Christians, along with people of other faith, suffer from that.”
The charity and its partners held an event in Westminster on Thursday to discuss with Parliamentarians and policy makers what life is really like for Christians in the region.
Dr Souraya Bechealany, acting general secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches said Westerners…
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