One of the legacies of the US-led invasion of Iraq has been sectarian violence it unleashed, not only between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but also against the Christian minority.
Yesterday I spoke to a gathering of 100 Iraqi Christians who met on the lawn in front of Parliament to mourn those who have been killed. They were particularly upset at
the 58 Christians massacred in a Baghdad Catholic church
at the beginning of this month.
There is ongoing persecution of Assyrian Christians who have lived in Iraq since the early Christian period. When the US invaded in 2003 the community numbered around 1 million people, but since then hundreds of thousands have fled the country or been internally displaced.
Those at the rally yesterday rightly believe our government should be strongly defending the right of Christians to practice their religion freely in Iraq.