When Christians Are Killed Outside Israel, Where Is the Outrage?

I woke up in Brazil today to heartbreaking news from Jordan.

Gunmen had opened fire on mourners attending a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the southern governorate of Karak. According to the latest reports, seven people were killed and 34 others wounded. The attackers’ motives and possible affiliations remain under investigation.

My heart sank.

Jordan holds a special place in my heart. It is part of the biblical lands, home to Mount Nebo, where Moses, according to Scripture, gazed upon the Promised Land before his death.

I have visited Jordan twice, and I deeply admire the Hashemite monarchy’s efforts to preserve religious coexistence and protect its Christian minority. Yet serious challenges remain. Jordan ranks 49th on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Even so, its Christian communities generally enjoy better conditions than those in several other Muslim-majority countries in the region.

Perhaps that is why the attack shocked me so deeply. Still, I cannot say I was entirely surprised.

My thoughts immediately turned to other attacks on churches across the Middle East: the June 2025 bombing of Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus, Syria, which killed at least 25 people; the ISIS attacks on two Coptic churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday in 2017, which killed dozens; and the 2010 massacre at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, where more than 50 people lost their lives.

Different countries, different circumstances, but a painful reminder of the vulnerability of some of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

Thinking about this brought me back to another recent experience: my latest trip to Israel.

I visited the country at the invitation of Eagles’ Wings, alongside more than 500 Christians from around the world. We traveled to Christianity’s holiest sites, prayed, worshipped, and reflected on the Jewish roots of our faith.

We also visited Bethlehem, where we met Christian communities struggling with the collapse of tourism and the hardships of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We heard from Israeli officials about the country’s security challenges following October 7 and participated in Jewish-Christian dialogue events and initiatives against antisemitism.

Throughout the trip, I never once felt afraid or threatened because I was a Christian.

My friends and I walked through Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter wearing Christian symbols, singing worship songs, and praying openly. Nobody spat at us, insulted us, or threatened us because of our faith.

Nor did any of the Christians I personally met, including those in the Palestinian territories, tell me they were being persecuted by the State of Israel.

Of course, as a political scientist, I know that personal experience has its limits. Christians in Israel and the Palestinian territories face real challenges. The harassment of Christian clergy in Jerusalem and violence by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinian Christian communities, including in Taybeh, deserve unequivocal condemnation and concrete action.

But here is what troubles me.

Why do incidents of religious intolerance involving Israel, however serious, so often appear to generate more international outrage than far deadlier attacks against Christian communities elsewhere in the region?

This is not about turning suffering into a competition. It is about questioning why some victims become symbols of international concern while others receive so little attention.

Consider Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. Syria ranks sixth, Yemen third, Iran tenth, Iraq eighteenth, and Egypt 42nd among the countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. Jordan ranks 49th. Israel does not appear among the 50 countries on the list.

These figures do not mean that Christians in Israel face no discrimination or that Palestinian Christians have no legitimate grievances. But they challenge attempts to portray Israel as the Middle East’s principal persecutor of Christians.

Videos of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting at Christian clergy in Jerusalem have rightly sparked outrage. Such behavior is disgraceful. But where is the same sustained attention when Christians are murdered during worship in Syria or attacked while mourning their dead in Jordan?

This question became even more personal during my recent visit to Israel, when I heard Nigerian pastor Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo speak about the violence facing Christian communities in his country.

His testimony was heartbreaking.

Nigeria ranks seventh on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List. According to the organization, 3,490 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in Nigeria during its latest reporting period, accounting for approximately 72% of the 4,849 such deaths documented worldwide.

Behind these numbers are people like those Reverend Dachomo has been forced to bury: members of Christian communities whose lives were cut short by violence.

Nigeria’s violence has multiple causes, including jihadist insurgencies, communal conflicts, and failures of governance. But those complexities should never obscure cases in which Christians are deliberately targeted because of their faith.

Just days after I returned from Israel, another devastating video of Reverend Dachomo circulated online as he mourned members of his Christian community who had been killed.

I could not stop thinking about the contrast between the freedom I had experienced worshipping openly in Israel and the anguish of a pastor burying members of his congregation.

And yet, so much of the international conversation about Christians in the region seems focused on portraying Israel as uniquely hostile to Christianity.

Criticism of Israel is legitimate, and the suffering of Palestinian Christians must never be dismissed. But concern for religious freedom should not depend on whether the perpetrators fit a preferred political narrative.

As I mourn with my Christian brothers and sisters in Jordan today, I hope that one day the international community will take the persecution of Christians around the world seriously.

Not only when Israel can be blamed.

Not only when their suffering is politically convenient.

But because their lives matter.

Our compassion cannot depend on the identity of the perpetrators or the political usefulness of the victims.