Though early Christians suffered persecution and many died as martyrs, when Christianity became dominant it was Christians who treated first Jews and later also Muslims as inferiors, often humiliating and sometimes executing them.

Nowadays it’s Muslims who tend to persecute adherents of other faiths. As a result, Jews had to leave the countries where they had lived from time immemorial and settle elsewhere, mainly in Israel. Christians who have remained under Muslim rule are often exposed to state-sponsored discrimination and worse. In recent years, their plight has reached dramatic proportions.

Raymond Ibrahim, a specialist in the field, last December published a lengthy survey of how “the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ continues to transition into a ‘Christian Winter.’ ” He listed discrimination, persecution and killings of Christians by Muslims in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Kashmir, Kenya, Nigeria, Turkey and Pakistan.

Since it’s almost impossible to fathom the plight of masses, we tend to concentrate on stories of individuals. That’s why lately the media have focused on Yousef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor who was sentenced to death in 2010 by the Iranian regime because of his religion. So far, Teheran hasn’t heeded appeals by President Barack Obama and other western leaders to release him.

Michael Curtis, distinguished professor emeritus of political science at Rutgers University, has written persuasively about the plight of Palestinian Christians. Though it’s fashionable to blame Israel for their suffering, in fact, writes Curtis, “two-thirds of Christian Arabs left the areas between 1949 and 1967, the period when Jordan occupied and annexed the West Bank, and Egypt controlled Gaza, years before Israel controlled those areas.”

In the 15 years or so since Israel ceded control of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority, the share of the town’s Christian population has dropped dramatically from two-thirds to one-fifth.

This is also part of the argument in an article that appeared some three weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. Because its author is Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, hostile critics will be prone to charge him with bias when he writes that “the only place where Christians aren’t endangered but flourishing is Israel.”

Though, alas, even in the Jewish state Christians encounter acts of intolerance by individuals and groups, and may at times be subjected to excessive state bureaucracy, their numbers have nevertheless increased exponentially.

Church leaders in Europe and elsewhere frequently and laudably urge their adherents to help Muslim immigrants to integrate into predominantly Christian societies without compelling newcomers to lose their religious identity. Surprisingly, however, the same advocates don’t seem to show sufficient concern for their co- religionists in Muslim states.

Though they may not be in a position to adequately protect all Christians in Muslim countries, they should be able to provide safe havens for them in places where the church continues to be influential with considerable access to human and economic resources. If Israel could take in some 800,000 Jews driven out of Arab lands, the Christian world should be able to absorb co-religionists who want to leave because they fear for their lives at home.

But we hear very little about such initiatives. Jews still rightly complain about the silence of Pope Pius XII and other Christian leaders during the Holocaust. I hope that future generations of Christians won’t have similar grievances against their leaders for abandoning fellow Christians at risk.

Our common religious heritage alerts us to the urgent challenge to work with God in the sacred task of giving succour and shelter to all in need. Hence this outsider’s respectful question: Do Christian leaders apply it sufficiently to their own sisters and brothers in faith?

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every other week. (© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2012 04/01/12)