In my country, Egypt, Christians have suffered for more than a half a century, and although they are the biggest minority in number in the Middle East, between 15 to 18 million people, they suffer from discriminatory practices, inferior treatment and systematic attacks against them and their sanctuaries while the state does nothing to protect them. With a change in the map of international understandings and agreements and with the support of the major powers, it was made possible for the extremist group the Muslim Brotherhood to acquire the reins of power in Egypt, and the Middle East was made wide-open to the fundamentalist tide. When the Egyptians confirmed their intention to correct this mistaken situation, these states planted “democracy funds” to flout the will of millions of Egyptians who had gone out into the streets and squares to depose the Brotherhood. In August 2013, scores of churches and religious institutions in Egypt were exposed to ferocious attack at the hands of extremists, amidst conspicuous international silence. But Egyptians proved their worthiness to live in dignity by not losing heart and proceeding along the path to determine the features of their country’s political future, in spite of the continuing challenges. In Upper Egypt, the phenomenon of kidnapping has been growing, and the victims have not found a way to avoid being killed except by paying ransom. This is in addition to the phenomenon of the forced disappearance of minor girls with the goal of converting them to Islam, which has also been clearly growing with the rise of Islamic movements. The flight of Copts from their villages and the seizure of their lands and homes also continues. This problem has even reached the heart of the capital city, where a government-sponsored customary “reconciliation session” ordered the deportation of Christian families from the neighborhood of Al-Matriya, and forced them to pay sums of money, a piece of land, and numbers of heads of camels and cattle. The justification was a quarrel between Copts and Muslims in which a Muslim passerby was killed by gunfire from an unknown source. Despite all that, the Christians are fortunate compared to other minorities in Egypt. Those who belong to other faiths, such as the Baha’i or Shi’a Muslims, are not recognized as having any rights from the perspective of the state. Campaigns of incitement contributed to mobs burning the homes of the Baha’i in the village of Al-Sharonia, and the killing of a Shi’a imam in Zawiyat Abu al-Nimros. This is the same predicament the Christians are living through in Syria, where they are among the oldest and best-known communities in the country. They have become fuel for a grinding war between the regime and fundamentalist groups, some of whom are supported by the international community.