A series of violent incidents underscores the fragile position of Christians living in Islamic nations

Following a New Year's Day bombing that killed 21 people in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday said that Christian minorities in the Middle East are becoming victims of "religious cleansing".
By News Wires (text)

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.

A series of attacks against Christians "looks more and more... like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," Sarkozy said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.

A deadly attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on January 1 killed 21 people.

An Al-Qaeda-linked website had published threats against that church and other Coptic communities in various countries.

Forty-four worshippers and two priests died in an attack on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad in October, the worst of a series of attacks against Christians in Iraq.

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