Persecution has become an inconvenient truth
SIR – Your editorial highlighting the need for our Government to have an ethically based foreign policy is much needed (April 1). It could make its overseas aid budget dependent on the recipient countries’ human rights record. This would be an inducement to better behaviour and lead to the protection of minorities, including Christians, as well as those who are persecuted on the basis of their ethnicity. The persecution of Christians has become an uncomfortable subject for Western democracies and media who, if not ignoring it entirely, mostly report it as persecution based on ethnicity such as occurs in Nigeria. Even here in the UK, Nissar Hussain, a Muslim who converted to Christ has, with his family, been subjected to vandalism and abuse. According to one Christian publication, the authorities in Bradford, where this family lives, have failed to recognise their need of protection under the law and they have been left to suffer ill-treatment. The problem of persecution is very much an inconvenient truth. Yours faithfully, John Lovett, Bedale, North Yorkshire
