Maliki pledges to protect Christians

Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki has pledged to protect and support the small Christian minority in Iraq’s spiraling violence.

After receiving Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, Emmanuel III Delly, the head of Chadean Church in Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday affirmed his government’s readiness and determination to defend the small Christian community from violence.

Delly has been outspoken about the need to protect minority Christians from Iraq’s violence. Pope Benedict XVI named Delly as one of 23 new cardinals as a prince of the Roman Catholic Church on October 17.

Christian community in Iraq is about 3 percent of the country’s 26 million people and has little political or military influence to represent itself.

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