Mainstream Media is Erasing Middle Eastern Christians | Opinion Alex Galitsky , Communications Director, Armenian National Committee of America’s Western Region On 3/10/21 at 10:53 AM EST For the beleaguered indigenous Christians of the Middle East, there was hope the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq would bring much needed awareness to their plight. Despite recognizing the "fading" presence of the region's Christians, mainstream media has largely been complicit in reinforcing the systematic erasure of these ancient communities. The Christians of the "Muslim world" take little solace in being portrayed as outsiders in the region they've inhabited since before the time of Christianity. Nor are they particularly delighted at their portrayal as a homogenous entity of "Iraqi Christians"—a reductionist mischaracterization of a diverse community that was propounded by Ba'athist and later Kurdish authorities to enforce the assimilation and disappearance of their distinct ethnic and cultural identities.