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Norwich Bishop's fear for Iraqi Christians
 The Bishop of Norwich has launched a thinly veiled attack on the government's pursuit of war in Iraq claiming it had led to the persecution of fellow Christians in that country.
Wading into a potential clash with ministers, the Rt Rev Graham James said an overwhelmingly secular mindset at the heart of government, and a poor understanding of faith in other parts of the world had fuelled a policy which had left hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians in greater danger than ever before.
For centuries Christian groups have been tolerated in Iraq and even Saddam Hussein's former deputy Tariq Aziz was a Christian.
But since the fall of Saddam, five years ago, more than two-thirds of Christians, around 300,000 people, have either fled the country or faced persecution or torture because Iraqis wrongly believe they are linked to western governments.
On the eve of Christmas, Bishop Graham said both Britain and America were guilty of a “religious illiteracy” which had led to a lack of understanding about the fallout from the occupation, adding that it was tragic that two western powers with a strong Christian tradition may have almost eclipsed one of the longest surviving churches in the world.
And they had failed to do more to protect Christians and other minority groups.
Read the rest of this story on EDP24
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| | Bill Crudgington (Guest) | 24/12/2008 10:54 | | I think that Bishop Graham's comments are slightly misleading in as much that the 300,000 "christians" he mentions are in fact christian by birth but the majority are unlikely to be Christian by faith in The Lord Jesus as their saviour and Lord. They are Christian as opposed to being Muslim in the same way as our country is considered to be "Christian" and the vast majority are considered to be Christians whereas there is no faith or firm belief to their label of Christian. In fact being a Christian is not by birth but by re-birth through faith in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour.
| | | JOE PARISH (Guest) | 25/02/2009 05:15 | | I disagree with Bills comments as knitpicking and entirely besides the point.For a start the bishops point was not to adress how pious these christians are to their tradition but that innocent people are being targetted simply for their cultural beliefs or identity as christians.I cant see the point of your comment in the context of the bishops remarks,are you implying that your assumption of their lack of piety makes their potential genocide less relevent.Would you have chosen to make such an irrelivent remark reharding the piety of the millions of people labelled by the nazis as jews regardless of their actual beliefs who perished in the holocaust.As a voice for compassion the Bishop chose to draw attention to a group whos fate is particularly grave in the aftermath and who happen to be christian,whos plight has gone mostly unnoticed by the mainstream media.Also if you had bothered to give it some thought ,consider that to have maintained christian traditions in a predominantly islamic culture often hostile to christians would strongly suggest that they would likely be more faithfull to the bible than the average brit but that was entirely not the point of the bishops humanitarian remarks.Sorry to be blunt but to me your ill educated and speculative assumption even if correct which I beg to differ seems to me to be entirely irrelivent in the context of the Bishops remarks.To make your point more relevent we should be praising the bishops courage to speak out and hint at the horrible truth that this once christian nation and godforsaken governments level of moral responsibility seems to to be increasingly questionable.May god bless the bishop and his righteous remarks.
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