Muslims in the Middle East should do everything they can to protect the minority Christian population in that area of the world, Beirut’s Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil has said.

Khalil was speaking over the weekend at the opening of a new health care facility in the Beirut neighborhood of Sad al-Bouchrieh.

“The responsibility to preserve the Christians of the East is not the responsibility of Christians and their leaders only, but an Islamic humanitarian responsibility as well,” Khalil said, according to the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, while commemorating the opening of the St. Michel Primary Health Care Center.

The head of the Chaldean Church, Bishop Michel Qassarji, who is in charge of the new clinic, said it is designed to serve anyone regardless of their sectarian affiliation.

Lebanon has one of the higher Christian populations of countries in the Middle Eastern region. Lebanon's population is estimated to be 59.7 percent Muslim, 39 percent Christian and 1.3 percent other, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book.

Many areas of the Middle East have often been home to severe Christian persecution both historically and in recent years; much of it underreported or neglected by the Western media.

Cpost