(REUTERS / David Gray)Refugee advocates hold placards and banners during a protest in central Sydney, Australia, Oct. 5, 2016, calling for the closure of the Australian detention centers in Nauru and Manus Island.

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By Lorraine Caballero 19 December, 2016

Australia should take in more Christian refugees from the Middle East and stop being "religiously blind" in its choice of immigrants, according to journalist Angela Shanahan.

In an op-ed written for The Australian, Shanahan explains that the Christians who have fled the Middle East are not just victims of war, but also of "targeted persecution." She said the world is facing the possible extinction of Christianity from the faith's cradle because of Islamic fundamentalism.

Shanahan also slammed Australia's "religiously blind" policy on immigrants and refugees. For her, the country cannot continue to be religiously blind in processing refugee applications.

The Australian government had announced openings for 12,000 individuals under the refugee program. It was assumed that those slots would be taken mostly by the persecuted Middle East Christians and minorities, but there is no way to know how many of the 10,092 visas granted from November 2015 to Dec. 2 are for Christian refugees.

Shanahan also shone some light on the effect of the Arab Spring on the Coptic Christians of Egypt. After the recent Cairo church bombing killed 24 Copts last Sunday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull issued a "lukewarm" Twitter statement condemning the suicide blast. Despite the condemnation of the atrocities against Christians in Turkey and in Egypt, the Australian government has denied many of the applications for asylum from persecuted Copts.

The Washington Post also tells the story of how Australia opened its doors to thousands of South Sudanese refugees in the 2000s. However, they were reportedly not given the opportunity to integrate into their new community.

After more than 10 years, some of the South Sudanese refugees have become part of criminal gangs that are blamed for many of the crimes in Melbourne. The situation points back to Australia's refugee program in the said city.

Based on an annual survey by Andrew Markus of Monash University, 61 percent of Australians do not approve of granting asylum to people who arrive in the country by boat. Many Australians also think that the refugee detention centers in the state of Nauru and Papua New Guinea is the country's "greatest national shame."