Sarkozy Speaks Out Against Muslim "Religious Cleansing" Of Christians

French President Sarkozy pulls no punches in responding to Muslim persecution of Christians:

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.

"We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," he said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.

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

No one has yet claimed responsibility for that attack, which came after threats published online against Egypt's Copts from an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq which had said it was behind a deadly assault on a church in Baghdad in October.

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

Referring to the Muslim persecution of Christians as a "religious cleansing" is strong language--but under the circumstances, it is better to address these Muslim attacks head on, instead of tiptoeing around them.

The question now is whether other world leaders will follow suit and be equally blunt in talking about these Muslim attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt before it develops into a more widespread problem in the Muslim world--and beyond.

Technorati Tag: Muslim Persecution of Christians and Sarkozy.