A Catholic archbishop in Syria has warned that the church there "is dying” as the number of Christians living there continues to decline.
Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs said the country’s political and economic situation is causing waves of Christians to leave.
The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) estimates around 2.1 million Christians lived in Syria in 2011 with only around 540,000 remaining there last year.
Archbishop Mourad said: “None of the efforts by the universal Church or the local Church managed to stem the tide of the exodus, because the causes are not related to the Church, but rather to the country’s disastrous political and economic situation.
“You can’t stop a wave of migration without first establishing a well-defined political government model in Syria and a solid security system.”
He added: “The Syrian people continue to suffer violence, reprisals, and tragic and regrettable events that undermine all the international claims and popular demands to put an end to this bloodbath.
“We are becoming more and more like Afghanistan. We don’t have that level of violence yet, but we’re not that far off either. People are under all sorts of pressure.
“Don’t think we are heading towards greater freedom, religious or otherwise.”
Nathalie Raffray from ACN told Premier: “It's quite horrific when you consider what's happening there and what's happened in the last decade. Christianity has fallen from 6.3 per cent to 2.3 per cent whereas the Muslims have grown from 94 per cent to 95.9 per cent".
She added, "The Hindus have remained roughly the same at 0.01 per cent and agnostics have fallen from 1.9 per cent to 1.7 per cent. So it tells us that what was once a very diverse country with many Christians, is now of course, predominantly Muslim”.
Archbishop Mourad is calling on the international community to “adopt a clear position regarding what is happening in Syria”, and also that “all local and international institutions and organisations that operate in Syria cooperate with cultural bodies, schools, universities and institutes to overcome the fear that has taken hold in society”.