 BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister on Tuesday cautioned other countries not to encourage Christians to abandon their homeland, after France took in dozens of people wounded in a bloodbath at a Baghdad church.
"The countries that have welcomed the victims ... of this attack have done a noble thing, but that should not encourage emigration," Nuri al-Maliki said on a visit to the Syriac Catholic cathedral where the massacre occurred.
| It would help if you could protect your citizens ... |
On his first visit to the church since the October 31 incident, Maliki said that when he last met Benedict XVI in 2008, he asked the pope "not to let the east be emptied of Christians, nor the West of Muslims."
| Notice that the West is not booming Muslims, nor are we beheading and slitting throats ... |
| It wouldn't be up to the pope even if all the Christians in the East were Catholics, which most aren't. |
In all, 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security forces personnel died during the seizure of the cathedral by Islamist militants and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops. Around 60 people were wounded in the bloodbath and France swiftly offered to provide specialist treatment for those with the most serious injuries.
France is the only country to have offered to take in victims of the attack.
Thirty-four Iraqi Christians and a Muslim guard wounded in the incident flew in to France overnight on Monday for admission to hospitals for treatment. French Immigration Minister Eric Besson has said this fitted France's "tradition of asylum" to take them in, and that asylum would be "handed out generously" to those who seek it.
| The Christian refugees are likely to try to be good citizens, unlike certain others. |
An estimated 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq before the US-led invasion of 2003 but that number has since shrunk to around 500,000 in the face of repeated attacks against their community and churches.
Christians in Baghdad have now dwindled to around 150,000, a third of their former population in the capital. |