This Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 photo, shows a general view of Lebanon&#039;s Ras Baalbek, a Christian town in the northern Bekaa region near the border with Syria. Across the Middle East, Christian communities as old as the religion itself feel their very survival is at stake, threatened by militants of the Islamic State group rampaging across Iraq and Syria. Many Christian villagers are setting up self-defense units to protect themselves against attack. In Qaa and Ras Baalbek, two Christian northeastern villages on the border with Syria, many of the thousands of expatriates who used to spend the summer there stayed away this year. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)