Christians living in the U.S. must be more outspoken about the suffering endured by their sisters and brothers living under shariah law in Muslim-majority countries, particularly in the Middle East. That's the message that came out of a one-day conference that took place near Chicago on March 12, 2011. The conference, titled The Persecuted church: Christian Believers in Peril in the Middle East, was organized by more than a dozen organizations including local churches, proponents of religious freedom and Middle Eastern Christian groups in the U.S. that promote the rights of Christians in the region. "This is a historic event," said Walid Phares, author of "The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East and the keynote speaker. "The gathering of representatives of Copts, Assyrian-Chaldeans, Lebanese Christians and other Middle East Christians in Chicago, along with Christian and secular American groups, all advocating for the rights of indigenous populations in the Middle East from all ethnic and religious background, is a game changer in how we view human rights in the region. I call this event, the 'Chicago Initiative,' and wish to see it happening across the nation." Attendees of the conference learned that hostility toward Christians is an undeniable fact of life in Muslim countries and that governments in the Middle East have failed to protect the lives of indigenous Christians in the region. This problem has largely been ignored in the West because of a failure on the part of the media to cover the story, said Phares said. "I would like to see two hours on C-Span dedicated the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt," he said. Speakers at the conference described how Christians in Iraq, Iran and Egypt have been attacked by their neighbors and their governments. They also spoke about how shariah law is enshrined in the constitutions of Iraq and Egypt. Juliana Taimoorazy, director of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, headquartered in Chicago, detailed the horrific attacks against Christians in Iraq and stated people should no longer refer to Christians in the region as minorities because it obscures that they are living in their homelands. "We are the indigenous people of Iraq," she said. Father Keith Roderick, an Episcopal priest and General Secretary of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights said Christians cannot rely on traditional media outlets to cover the mistreatment of indigenous groups with the attention it deserve. As a result, they will have to take matters into their own hands and publicize the events themselves. In particular, they should take advantage of social media to get their story out. "The people themselves have to be their own media," he said. Carl Moeller, President and CEO of Open Doors USA, a group that supports persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries, compared indifference to the plight of Christians to the disease of leprosy, which causes nerve endings in peoples' extremities to die. As a result, people can't respond to threats to their well-being. Christians cannot let the same process take place in the Church, which is the Body of Christ. "We can't allow ourselves to become spiritual lepers," he said. Todd Nettleton, director of Media Development for the Voice of the Martyrs, which advocates for persecuted Christians throughout the world stated that Christians in the Middle East have served as a powerful example for Christians living elsewhere in the world where persecution is not a problem. "We do want more freedom for our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East. We want more rights; we want their governments to protect those rights," he said. "But at the same time we understand that from the very beginning God has allowed persecution to strengthen the church and to spread the gospel message around the world." The point of the conference was not to demonize Islam or antagonize Muslims, said Dexter Van Zile, Christian Media Analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), one of the co-sponsors of the conference. The goal was to inform the American public about an underreported problem and put leaders on notice that Christians in the Middle East need protection. "Christians in the Middle East do not have the money to hire PR experts and lobbyists," he said. "They must pay with their lives and blood to get their hearing. We must not break faith with by ignoring their story."