What the Iran-Israel conflict means for Christians

A war would have potentially devastating consequences for Christian minorities in the Middle East, warns Dr Martin Parsons

It was 1991, early in the first Gulf War and I and colleagues in Pakistan huddled round the kitchen table listening to the BBC World Service every hour. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, having months earlier invaded Kuwait, had now begun firing scud missiles at Israeli cities in an attempt to drag Israel into the war. We all understood that if Israel retaliated, it would ignite a wider war in the Middle East that would potentially drag in other Islamic countries such as Pakistan.

The Pakistani government had originally condemned Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. But as soon as Western bombing of Iraq started the whole situation reversed. It seemed every rickshaw in town carried a picture of Saddam and we could hear riots on the nearby Grand Trunk Road, with protestors burning effigies of US President George Bush and shouting “death to America”.