Christians left by the world to suffer - Douglas Alexander MP, Sunday Telegraph

Across the world this week, hundreds of millions of us will be singing of that “silent night, holy night” in the town of Bethlehem.

But as Christmas approaches, with its beguiling promise of “peace on earth and mercy mild”, how many of us will reflect on the words of our great Christmas carols and be reminded that Christianity was a faith born in the East? How many of us are aware that, while the first Christmas took place in the Middle East, there today that same faith is under threat?
 

Last week, the leader of the Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis, chose to cast light on this dark story of persecution by taking to Twitter to warn that we “cannot resign ourselves to think of a Middle East without Christians”.
 

Later in the week, Prince Charles warned that “Christians in the Middle East are, increasingly, being deliberately attacked by fundamentalist Islamist militants. Christianity was, literally, born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ”.
 

These were expressions of a growing concern that Christians are being deliberately targeted and attacked because of their faith. But why, when popes and princes are speaking up, have so many politicians here in the UK forsaken speaking out?

Read the full article by the UK Shadow Foreign Secretary here:
Christians left by the world to suffer - Sunday Telegraph