By contrast, Christians living in Muslim societies have in fact suffered on account of their faith. In just the past couple of years Rami Ayyad, owner of a Christian bookstore in the Gaza Strip, was abducted, tortured and killed by Islamists. Two Palestinian Christian women were shot to death by the semi-official al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade for failing to wear the Islamic headscarf.

In Bethlehem, Jesus' birthplace, Christians feel under siege from the increasingly Islamist Palestinian majority. Samir Qumsieh, owner of a Christian TV station, told the Jerusalem Post of beatings, theft and intimidation. "When I see what's happening to Christians here, I worry a lot for our future," he said. "They are targeting Christians, because we are seen as weak."

Christian churches have been firebombed in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, a Muslim who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death. In Egypt, the Copts face continuing persecution. And of course, in Sudan, a Muslim government has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Christian minority.

What do we make of Bosnia then? Good question. The nominally Christian Serbs did carry out an ethnic cleansing atrocity on the Bosnian Muslims. And guess who stepped in to stop it? A consortium of Western democracies. Where was the corresponding Muslim alliance to save the Christians of Sudan?

If the Muslim clerics are sincere in wishing for peace and understanding, they should issue a document that denounces Islamists; that rejects their violent interpretation of jihad; that affirms the human dignity of non-Muslims; and that condemns Osama bin Laden, Aymin al-Zawahiri and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by name. That would be historic. This letter is worse than a bromide, it's a dodge.