"To my great surprise, Facebook has criticized me for the publication of this graphic document as a proof of the Holocaust that Christians have been suffering in Nigeria in the last ten years. According to Facebook's Security policy of the 'social' Network, this photo has been classified as 'pornographic', 'violent' or 'inappropriate' and hence I was disallowed to publish any picture for a week.

In Egypt, large numbers of Coptic Christians have moved abroad in response to a tide of discrimination and outright oppression. Though still numbering at least 5.1 million of an 80 million-strong population (according to government estimates disputed by the Coptic church), Copts face many professional glass ceilings, and scores of their churches have been attacked by Salafist extremists.

Nadarkhani, who spent more than 1,000 days in jail, was freed in September by an Iranian court, which acquitted him on the apostasy charges.

According to the sources, Nadarkhani was re-arrested by Iranian authorities to serve the remainder of a three-year sentence he had received for helping Muslims convert from Islam to Christianity. The sentence was upheld in September by the same Iranian court which had acquitted him of blasphemy.

The omens are not good. Every country in the Middle East seems to be becoming more Islamic and more sectarian. Syrian Christians have seen since 2003 how an outcome of the invasion of Iraq was the destruction of Christian communities in Iraq that had survived for almost 2,000 years.