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On All Things Considered this week Roy Jenkins and guests discuss what is happening to faith communities in the upheavals in the Middle East.听

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Every other day鈥檚 news provides another twist to the horrors of conflict in the region - millions of refugees, unknown numbers killed, bombing, torture, terror: and no end in sight.

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The Coptic Christians of Egypt celebrated their Christmas this week under tight security, after a wave of attacks in the summer left scores of churches destroyed or looted.听 As we marked Christmas in Wales, in Iraq 24 people were killed as they left a Roman Catholic Church in Baghdad.听 Meanwhile the overwhelming majority of people dying in Iraq or fleeing the conflict in Syria are Muslim.

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Public figures from Prince Charles to the Archbishop of Canterbury have been expressing fears that the region鈥檚 rich mosaic of spiritual traditions is under threat, and that some of the oldest Christian churches in the world might disappear from the lands which gave them birth. 听 How real is this threat?听 To what extent is religion responsible for many of the conflicts, and what role if any should faith communities play in helping to resolve the region鈥檚 unrest?

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Roy is joined by Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom,

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Rev鈥檇听 Nadim Nassar. the only Syrian priest in the Church of England and director of the Awareness Foundation, an educational charity founded in response to religious conflict around the world.

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British / Syrian journalist Robin Yassin鈥揔assab, novelist, co-editor of the quarterly magazine The Critical Muslim, who is just back from Syria.

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And Dr Harry Hagopian, an Armenian from Jerusalem, international lawyer and consultant and former Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches.听