Summary… contd.

     It is evident that  Christians and Jews share a common base in the Old Testament scriptures with its promises, commands and admonitions , but they are united also throughout history in the bond of suffering for their faith and its traditions.  The numbers of Jewish people who have suffered in Europe in massacres, pogroms, torture, expulsions, forced baptism and expropriation of goods is quite unknown, apart from he six millions who died in the Holocaust. The proportion of Jews who have died is far higher than that among Christians , although it has been estimated that during the two millennia seventy million Christians have died for the name of the Lord Jesus.Even in the twentieth century forty-five millions have suffered for His name, and each year from 2000 at least 200,000 Christians have been martyred ( according to the Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity  Worldwide and Release International.) In the 1970’s about 400,000 died for their faith  during the brutal tyranny of Idi Amin in Uganda. During the recurring persecution of Armenian Christians in the old Turkish empire the sufferings of that small minority during jihad against them are unimaginable. The figures do not convey the realities: 1894-96….150,000 died; 1908-09 …..30,000 died; 1915… 800,000 died ; 1916-1918… 300,000 died; 1919-22… 250,000 died. The Turkish authorities and many other governments fail to recognise these atrocities, and the Turkish government does not admit their failure to protect these minorities.