The U.S.-led coalition's "shortsightedness and ignorance" in Iraq have endangered the lives of Christians across the Middle East, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in a scathing commentary Saturday. Christians are now seen as "supporters of the crusading West" - making them the target of attacks by Islamic radicals and forcing many to flee their homelands, wrote Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, in a commentary in The London Times. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Saturday, Williams said the situation for Christians in Iraq is worse than it was when Saddam Hussein was in power. Williams, who was on a Christmas pilgrimage to the Holy Land with other British church leaders, has been an outspoken critic of the war.
A statement by Foreign Office said Britain's Middle East policies were not to blame for the plight of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christian communities. Instead, the government said, Christians and moderate Muslims were both the victims the "intolerant extremism of people who want to cause pain and suffering and chaos."