Christians in the Middle East are being put at risk by the Government's "short-sighted" and "ignorant" policy in Iraq, the Archbishop of Canturbury has said. Dr Rowan Williams said attacks on Christian believers in the region are increasing, and the Government should have a strategy for helping them.
Writing in the Times, he said factors such as reaction to the war in Iraq, mistrust from surrounding communities and security measures have combined to make the situation intolerable.
He added that Christians in countries including Iraq, Iran, the Holy Land, Egypt and Turkey had reached the point where many are migrating away from their homelands.
Dr Williams was writing during a visit to the region by UK church leaders, including the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor.
In an unprecedented attack, the archbishop said in the days leading up to the Iraq war a warning was made and "systematically ignored" that Christians living in the region would be seen as supporters of the "crusading West".
As a consequence of this failure to have a strategy, he writes: "...the results are now painfully adding to what was already a difficult situation for Christian communities across the region.
"Iraq's own Christian population is dropping by thousands every couple of months and some of its most effective leaders have been forced to emigrate.
"In Istanbul, the Orthodox population is a tiny remnant, and their Patriarch is told by some of the Turkish press that it's time he left.
"In Egypt, where Christian-Muslim relations have been - and still are - intimate and good, extremist attacks on Christians have become notably more frequent."
Dr Williams concluded that Western communities did not fully understand the nature of the difficulties faced by the fleeing Christian population.