It has now been a year since the Arab Spring began shaking the Middle East. From Morocco to Bahrain, the Arab "street" has seen unprecedented politic upheavals. So far, the long-standing rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have been toppled, while the leaders of Syria and Yemen are close behind. Other Arab nations -- such as Jordan, Algeria and Morocco -- have quickly enacted reforms to stave off the anger of the masses. The Arab uprisings came unexpectedly and were launched by a surprising source -- the "Facebook generation" of young Arab students and intellectuals longing for the better life of the West. Thus, many Western observers saw great hope in the Arab Spring. Yet this quickly changed. At first, the radical Muslim Brotherhood stayed away from the demonstrations, but then it realized it was missing a golden opportunity to exploit moves toward democracy. The Brotherhood has since been able to use its highly organized networks to win elections in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. The Arab Spring has turned into an Arab Winter. In Egypt, Christians and Jews have been the early targets of these newly empowered Islamists. Angry crowds stormed Israel's embassy in Cairo, forcing the Israeli ambassador to flee. Numerous churches have been burned and even bombed, and Coptic Christians are facing new levels of hostility. The mounting exodus of Christians from the entire region even prompted the leading Israeli news portal Ynet to recently declare the "End of Arab Christianity," while Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad, warned of "the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East." The truth is that most of the region is changing for the worse, and there are many reasons to be pessimistic. Yet there are other developments that give us hope for Christianity in the region -- namely, signs of revival in the Arab world. Today a unique move of God is underway in the Muslim world. In the book Iran: Desperate for God, published recently by Voice of the Martyrs, a missions organization with a strong presence in Iran, the author states that "the fastest growing movement in the entire Muslim world today [is] Muslims in Iran converting to Christianity." The book claims that after 30 years of suppression by the ayatollahs, most Iranians "grew weary of the grim, slavish, loveless loyalty to Allah, demanded by their state." According to native Iranian pastors, the Evangelical church in Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 numbered a mere few hundred believers. Today, the Evangelical following is estimated at over one million strong. In 2006, even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad angrily decried the rate of Muslim conversions to Christianity in his country. Iran's underground churches are currently experiencing an annual growth of 20 percent -- the highest rate worldwide (followed by Afghanistan at 16%). A look at Algeria finds a similar dynamic. An Algerian pastor who visited Jerusalem last autumn told us that, little more than a decade ago, the churches there had only a few hundred members. Yet even as persecution from Islamic militants has intensified, this pastor reports that today the Evangelical churches in his country can claim more than 200,000 members. The revival started among the Berber tribes but is spreading now to other sectors, and new fellowships are cropping up all over the country. But what is equally surprising is that these new Christian believers share a passionate love for Israel. The pastor asked me: "Our brothers back home love what you are doing for Israel. Can we open a branch of the International Christian Embassy for Algeria?" Libya also holds surprises. For decades, under the dictatorial rule of Muammar Gaddafi, it was one of the harshest countries for Christians. But the missions guide Operation World reports in its latest edition that "the spiritual climate in Libya has changed significantly [since Gaddafi's fall]

Dr. B