Sir,

The extensive media coverage of the appalling death of Gayle Williams in Afghanistan is welcome, but your readers must not be fooled into thinking she died because she was a foreign national. Gayle Williams died because she was a Christian.

The fact is that in far too many parts of the world intimidation, beatings and murder remain everyday realities for hundreds of thousands of Christians. Open Doors estimates that 1,600 Christian families have now fled Mosul, in northern Iraq after 15 Christians, including a man in a wheelchair and a 15 year old boy, were killed in the last two weeks. Church Leaders have petitioned Prime Minister Nasri al-Maliki to send more troops to the region, to put an end to what is, in effect, religious cleansing.

We must never let our religious beliefs obscure our humanity. To cut short the life of a woman who devoted her life to helping others, simply because of her faith, is barbaric in itself. Worse still, as we approach the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it also represents a major breach of our fundamental human right to practice the religion of our own choosing.

Yours etc,

Eddie Lyle