Iraqi Christians Under Fire
What bloody fools George W Bush and Tony Blair were to create this sad situation; and what even bigger fools we were to listen to them! Tony Blair might well have his riches; but does he have his integrity? – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Half the refugees fleeing Iraq are Christian, dramatically reducing a presence that pre-dates Islam. Edward Stourton reports.

A guard outside the cathedral in Kirkuk. Photograph: The Telegraph
Fr Rayan Paulos Atto showed me an elaborately decorated bronze and glass case mounted on the wall near the altar of his airy modern church in Erbil. It was a reliquary, a showcase for displaying a relic of a saint or martyr – the sort of thing you might find gathering dust in the sacristy of some venerable Italian basilica.

Fr Rayan's reliquary contains a miniature icon of the Virgin which is spattered with tiny droplets of blood – the blood of his closest friend, a priest gunned down on the steps of his church in the name of Islam. For Christians in Iraq today the possibility of martyrdom is an ever present reality, not a historical curiosity.

The campaign of violence against Christians is one of the most under-reported stories of Iraq since the invasion of 2003. And it could change the country's character in a fundamental way; by the time the dust finally settles on the chaotic current chapter of Iraq's history, the Christian community may have disappeared altogether – after 2,000 years as a significant presence. About 200,000 Iraqi Christians have already fled the country; they once made up three per cent of its population, and they now account for half of its refugees.

Erbil, in northern Iraq, has become a magnet for Christian refugees who are too poor to leave Iraq or do not want to abandon their country. It is the seat of the Kurdish Regional Government, which treats the Christians well; it is safe; and there is an established Christian community to welcome them. Many of them gravitate towards the traditionally Christian suburb of Ainkawa.

Ainkawa is a 15-minute drive from the centre of Erbil, and on the way there, with Fr Rayan at the wheel, we passed the motorway exit to Mosul. Mosul – the biblical city of Nineveh – is only 50 miles from Erbil, but it remains a fearsomely violent place and it was there that Fr Rayan's friend lost his life. >>> Edward Stourton | Saturday, April 03, 2010