'Christians have been living in the Middle East seven decades prior to the arrival of Islam, and for 14 other decades as part of, or under, the law of Islam. Never has the situation of Christians reached such a difficult, unstable situation as it has in the last two years.

A wall-- plus, of course, checkpoints: "A series of recent suicide bombings has driven the governor of the Iraqi capital to propose the concrete barrier, which will be 15ft (4.5m) high and 70 miles (112km) long.