Christianity is threatened with extinction in the biblical heartlands of the Middle East because of Islamist oppression, according to a report from a UK think-tank.

And the report goes on to say that Western politicians and media ignore the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the wider world because they fear being accused of racism.

The report, Christianophobia, written by journalist Rupert Shortt and published by Westminster think-tank Civitas, illustrates the extent of persecution against Christians across the globe. Shortt has also written a book of the same name.

Christians are more likely to be the target of discrimination or persecution that any other religious group and they are particularly at risk in Muslim-dominated societies.

Oppression is magnified by anti-Americanism and the feeling that Christianity is a “Western” creed, even though it originated in the Middle East.

The report quotes expert findings that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have either left or been killed over the past century.

It says that this assault is now growing with the rise of militant Islam in countries such as Egypt, Iraq and now, with the civil war, Syria.

Across the world as a whole, some 200 million Christians (10 per cent of all Christians) are socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.

Mr Shortt writes:  “Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood.

“The blind spot displayed by governments and other influential players is causing them to squander a broader opportunity. Religious freedom is the canary in the mine for human rights generally.”

The report surveys in detail the extent of Christian persecution in seven countries – Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, Burma, China and India.

And it cites findings from the Freedom House think-tank report to highlight the way that Muslim-majority countries are the most hostile to Christians.

They impose the greatest curbs on religious freedoms and make up 12 of the 20 countries judged to be “unfree” on the grounds of religious tolerance. Of the seven states receiving the lowest possible score, four are Muslim.

Mr Shortt traces the rise of Christianophobia in Egypt to the early 1970s when the quadrupling of oil prices gave Saudi Arabian religious extremists the material means to export their views around the world.

Atrocities involving the deaths of scores of Christians in the 1970s were followed by steady deterioration in the 1980s and 1990s when the death rate multiplied into the hundreds in many separate attacks.

More recently, in January 2010, 13 worshippers were killed when they came out of St George’s Church in Nag Hammadi, near Luxor.

Mr Shortt illustrates the mounting hostility to Christians by quoting the Salafist website ‘Guardians of the Faith’, which published an article saying “Being a Muslim girl whose role models are the wives of the Prophet, who were required to wear the hijab, is better than being a Christian girl, whose role models are whores.”

Iraq has also witnessed the decimation of its Christian community amid frequent bombings, shootings, beheadings and kidnappings, especially since the invasion of 2003.

In 1990 there were between 1.2 to 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. By 2003, there were only around half a million. Today there are less than 200,000.

Christians are also under pressure in non-Muslim countries.

Mr Shortt points out that more Christians are imprisoned in China than in any other country in the world. It is estimated that almost 2000 members of house churches were arrested during the 12 months after May 2004 alone.