DAR AL HARB-U.K.: U.S. & U.K. POLICIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST ENDANGERING TINY CHRISTIAN POPULATIONS IN DAR AL ISLAM

UK, US Mideast policy 'shortsighted, ignorant' - Archbishop

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams Saturday said that Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush are endangering the lives and futures of many thousands of Christians in the Middle East.

Christians in the Middle East are being put at unprecedented risk by the government's "shortsighted" and "ignorant" policy in Iraq, the spiritual leader of the Church of England said.

Writing in the Times newspaper, Williams said one prediction that was systematically ignored was that Western military action would put the whole of the Middle East's Christian population at risk.

"The results are now painfully adding to what was already a difficult situation for Christian communities across the region," he said.

Christians in the region, he added, "would be seen as supporters of the crusading West." The archbishop, who has previously criticized the Iraq war, issued his warning from Bethlehem, where he is visiting on the Christmas eve.

He repeated his statement in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, when he said there was "no doubt" that life for Christians in Iraq had become more difficult since the invasion.

Separate reports have already blamed the Iraq war for making Britain a biggest risk of being targeted by international terrorism threats.

The Times said that the archbishop was backed by bishops across the Church of England, who say Christians in the Middle East are paying the price for the "chaos" in Iraq after the UK failed to heed their warnings about the consequences of military action.

"Nobody takes any notice of what churchmen say about these things.

Now this has turned into a very sorrowful 'I told you so'," the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, was quoted saying.

"We have argued all along that what was being done in our name by our Government, led by America, would have disastrous consequences," said the bishop, who is one of the Church's top five clerics.

He said that the question is now what to do.

"We have made a problematic situation far worse. Even if there were changes of government in America and Britain, they will still have to cope with the chaos that has been unleashed," he warned.




Pertinent Links:

1) UK, US Mideast policy 'shortsighted, ignorant' - Archbishop