Supporting Iraqi Christians

Encouraged by the Barnabas Fund (link in title) I have written to my MP and encourage you to do so also. Here is my letter

'It may come a surprise to you to have a second communication from me in support of government policy. I have always supported the invasion of Iraq. In fact I think we should have done it when we liberated Kuwait. It would have saved Labour a lot of problems :-)

So I am calling for more involvement there, specifically to protect the Christian minority who are being persecuted by those opposed to the occupation. In the eyes of good Muslims there is no separation of religion and politics. They wrongly see all Christians as supporters of the invasion. So Iraqi Christians who were no threat to Saddam are viewed as friends of the invaders and suffer with little apparent protection from the Coalition forces. They are being forced to flee their country.

It is estimated that over one million Christians have fed the country since persecution started after the first Gulf war in 1990. This is two thirds of the Christian population. Many staying in the country have fled, unsupported to the Kurdish north where the invasion was welcomed.

So what is our government and the Coalition doing about this? What will you do to protect Christians in Iraq? You and I know the invasion is no Crusade. Muslims do not and are therefore persecuting their Christian compatriots. We owe these Christians special protection do we not?'

I await his reply. He is a sincere Catholic who I consider a friend though our politics, apart from pro-life, are far apart.

Please let me know what you will do to raise this with our government and what more will be done. Saddam had Christians in his government. Are there any in the present one? It is not protecting Christians.