BBC: For Coptic Christians this is Christmas Day. In Egypt it is being celebrated behind cordons of police and Christians are wearing black.
This sombre mood has its roots in an attack last week on the al-Qiddissin (All Saints) Church in Alexandria. Twenty-one people were killed and 100 wounded by a suicide bomber.
Militant websites have posted a list of churches to be targeted. There are "how-to" manuals with tips on "destroying the cross".
One site offered a reward to anyone who assassinated "a leading Church figure".
These incidents follow a recent trend of attacks on churches and Christians across the Middle East. In October in Baghdad nearly 60 people were killed when gunmen attacked the Syriac Catholic Cathedral. Only last week bombs were placed near the homes of 14 Christian families in the Iraqi capital.
Concern has been raised, but there has been an absence of international outrage. France is trying to change that. Its Foreign Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, wants a European response. She has written to the EU's foreign affairs czar, Catherine Ashton, asking for the union to draw up a plan of action in response to what is happening to Christians in the Middle East. She is putting the defence of Christians on the agenda and specifically wants Europe's foreign ministers to respond. She said we had moved beyond the situation of being "simply sad and disturbed".
Her intervention has been followed up by President Sarkozy. He said Christian minorities are victims of "religious cleansing" in the Middle East. "We cannot accept," said the French president, "and thereby facilitate, what looks more and more like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East - religious cleansing". >>> Gavin Hewitt | Friday, January 07, 2011
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