Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Christians numbered around 1.5 million, but sectarian attacks on churches in Baghdad and other areas soon followed, and the population either headed north or left the country altogether.

The poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates for Aid to the Church in Need-USA, an international papal agency that supports suffering and persecuted Christians in more than 140 countries.

With the addition of two appointees of President Donald Trump, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the court seems poised to extend protections for religious objections to anti-discrimination laws.

In 2018, the same appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that said the cross in the city's Bayview Park had to be removed because it violated the Establishment Clause.

I had traveled to Iraq to hear more about how this man had survived, a Catholic priest rescued by his Muslim friend. He would tell me that story, too.

The top 10 in the rankings featured some of America's best-known companies - Google's parent company Alphabet, Intel, Tyson Foods, Target, Facebook, American Airlines, Apple, Dell, American Express and Goldman Sachs.