A British think tank has released a lengthy report claiming that militant Islam is the greatest existential threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, bringing Christian communities in the region "close to extinction."

On the eve of the annual event, it’s challenging to grasp the persecution hounding many Christians worldwide. Indeed, Open Doors USA — a California-based advocacy group — publishes an annual list of 50 countries with the worst records on persecution.

Even in the United States there has been an increase of restrictions on the practice of some people's faith. Thus the United states was movedfrom a low category of restriction to a moderate category for the first time.

Christian civil rights organization ACLJ senior counsel David French says. “It’s clear that – particularly on college and university campuses – we have seen a significant rise in attempts to silence Christian organizations by the misapplication of nondiscrimination laws.”

The Egyptian military official said today that Islamic groups are threatening to slaughter “the whole Christian Coptic community” in thecity of Naja Hamadi, located about 60 miles from Cairo. Naja Hamadi contains a large Coptic community.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported Saturday (Sept. 8) that Nadarkhani, in jail since 2009, was acquitted of apostasy --that is, converting from Islam to Christianity -- but found guilty of evangelizing Muslims... Nadarkhani said he never was a Muslim.

A Muslim cleric from her neighborhood was arrested last week for planting evidence to incriminate the girl, an about-face in a case that has drawn strong international condemnation.

The American Atheists group is planning a billboard campaign in the host cities of the upcoming Republican and Democratic conventions. One billboardmessage attacks Christianity, and another attacks Mormonism. David Silverman, president of the group said that they focus on the presidentialelections because,

“Allowing our judgment to be clouded by sheer silliness is unacceptable. We want to show thepeople of our country the foolishness of mixing religion with politics.”

Please note that Caminiti was not accused of spanking anyone or of physically hurting anyone. He was put in prison simply for his speech.

Now the Barnabas Fund is reporting that some 300 Christians were killed in one diocese alone, and 27 people died in attacks on three church services as recently as Sunday.

The Coptic Orthodox Church was founded in Egypt, and has about eight million adherents, or nine percent of the Egyptian population.They have already been experiencing an increase in persecution since the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring uprising.They claim that they have been treated as second-class citizens and fear that emerging Islamic political leaders will impose strict Sharia law.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia...reportedly declared this week that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches" in the region, implying that no other religionbesides Islam will be tolerated on the Arabian Peninsula.

House Speaker John Boehner called it "an unambiguous attack on religious freedom" in a rare House floor speech decrying the mandate, a part of President Obama's health care law that has picked up Roman Catholic and conservative opposition in the past three weeks.

Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

Nigeria - Since the beginning of 2011 Boko Haram has killed more than 500 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches.

Sudan - Intense persecution of Christians and Animists has caused between 53,000 and 75,000 to be displaced from their residences.

Egypt - Since the Arab Spring more than 200,000 Coptic Christians have fled from their homes because of fear of attacks.

Iraq - More than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned.

A Bible college in Sudan functioning under Franklin Graham's missionary ministry, Samaritan's Purse, was bombed Wednesday and the ministry alleges the attack was launched by the Sudanese air force.

Attacks against Christians have increased greatly since the overthrow of President Mubarak, and observers fear that the new control by theMuslim Brotherhood will cause an increase in this violence.

A number of world leaders, including President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI, have expressed serious concern about the dramatic upsurge in attacks against that nation‘s largest religious minority, the Coptic Orthodox Christian community.

He said there would be a "clash of civilizations" between three great cultures (the Western, Asian,and Islamic). He predicted amassive conflict between the West and Islam caused by Islamic militarism.

Since then the Christian population has held steady, but is shrinking in Europe while it is growing in Africa and other developing areas.Wherever it is seen as a threat to Islam, persecution is growing.

In Iran and Pakistan, Christians are being put on death row for “apostasy” (translation: quitting Islam) or blasphemy... Two-thirds of Iraq’spre-war Christians have fled. In Egypt and Syria, Muslim zeal threatens ancient Christian groups.

More than 500 people have been killed by the group over the past year. On Christmas Day, it carried out a string of church bombings which killed 37 people at one church outside the capital, Abuja, alone.

“Christianity in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the US troop withdrawal,” declared Leonard Leo, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In Egypt, 100,000 Christians already left the country after Hosni Mubarak’s fall earlier this year.

In Syria, the major Christian leaders are supporting Bashar Assad’s regime and will suffer the consequences when he falls.

Christians who were once popular in Lebanon are now being assassinated and their communities are being bombed.

Christians in the Palestinian areas are being driven out. Every year some 1,000 Palestinian Christians are leaving Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.

Sudan and northern Nigeria saw steeper increases in persecution against Christians than 48 other nations where Christians suffered abuse last year, according to an annual ranking by Christian support organization Open Doors.