Every day around sunset, dozens of residents
of this small Lebanese Christian village on the
border carry their automatic rifles and
deploy on surrounding hills, taking up
positions and laying ambushes in case Muslim
extremists from neighbouring Syria attack.

“We all know that if they come, they will
slit our throats for no reason,” said one
villager as he drove through the streets of
Qaa, an assault rifle resting next to him. For months, Lebanese Christians have
watched with dread as other Christians flee
Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq, fearing
their turn will come next. Fears multiplied
after militants from Syria overran a border
town last month, clashing with security forces for days and killing and kidnapping
Lebanese soldiers and policemen.


Now, for the first time since the Lebanese
civil war ended in 1990, Lebanese Christians
are rearming and setting up self-defence
units to protect themselves, an indication of
the growing anxiety over the expanding
reach of radical Islamic groups. Across the Middle East, Christian communities
as old as the religion itself feel their very
survival is now at stake, threatened by
militants of the Islamic State group
rampaging across Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, thousands of Christians have fled
their homes after they were made to choose
between leaving, converting to Islam or
facing death. For the first time in centuries,
Iraq's Ninevah region and the provincial
capital of Mosul have been emptied of Christians. After they left, the militants
spray-painted their houses with the letter
“N” for “Nasrani” — an archaic term
used to refer to Christians — marking the
homes as Islamic State property.
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