Two years after its release, this still photo, taken from an ISIS propaganda video, remains as haunting as ever: a long line of Christian Coptic men in orange jump suits, forced to kneel and await execution simply for being Christian and refusing to renounce their religious beliefs. Even as the blades of the jihadists approached their necks, the martyrs cried out, “Ya Rabbi Yasou!” (“O My Lord Jesus!”).
That image, perhaps more than any other, has come to symbolize the fate of Christians in the Middle East. “What we are witnessing,” said human rights lawyer Nina Shea in a recent interview with me, “is a wave of horrific persecutions that may well eradicate Christian presence from the Middle East.”
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