Al-Qaida is turning its focus on Iraq's vulnerable Christians

„Over the last week in publicity trailing the release of his autobiography, former president George W Bush admitted that when it came to Iraq he felt a »sickening feeling«. Sadly for those looking for greater remorse he was only referring to the failure to discover weapons of mass destruction. But as a man of devout Christian faith it would be interesting to discover what Bush's thoughts are on the fact that one of the consequences of his war is that Iraq's Christian community of 1 million pre-war has shrunk by 60% since 2003, as its members have fled abroad or been killed.

As a minority population living in a country whose mode of politics can only be described as a bloody hybrid of democracy and sectarianism, Iraq's Christians have borne an unfair burden of recent tragedy. Their precarious position was highlighted over the past 10 days by the sentencing to death of prominent Christian and former Ace of Spades most-wanted, Tariq Aziz, and the bloody massacre of 46 worshippers in a Baghdad church near the Green Zone.

The massacre was described by al-Qaida in Iraq as a raid on »a filthy nest of the nests of polytheism, which has been long taken by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for a war against the religion of Islam«, and was followed by a series of statements promising the »destruction« of the community. Having been cleansed from Shia areas in the civil war and significantly depleted by fighting with the Sunni Sons of Iraq as part of the surge, al-Qaida appears to be turning its focus towards Iraq's dwindling Christian population.”