Christians face being driven from the Middle Eastby Simon KentThis could be the greatest story never told.The Arab Spring has turned to bitter mid-winter for Christians across the Middle East.Members of orthodox faiths are being driven from their biblical heartlands by hard line Muslim governments with no toleration of religious diversity.All behind the increasingly opaque veil of chaos and civil war as the rest of the world looks the other way.The exodus comes just 24-months into the biggest political upheaval in a generation, according to Father Peter-Michael Preble, an Orthodox priest with the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas.He says Christians are the single most persecuted minority in countries including Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria Iraq, Iran and the Lebanon.The Southbridge, Mass. priest points to the recent kidnapping of two prominent Orthodox bishops by rebel Syrian fighters as evidence of the bind Christians find themselves in.“Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji were both taken after they were tried to negotiate the release of two other Orthodox priests being held for ransom,” Preble told the Toronto Sun.“Sadly, they were also outspoken in highlighting the threat to religious tolerance from the conflict engulfing their country.

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COLUMN: Kent – Arab spring turns winter for Christians