Mr Comerford, who is Southern Regional Co-ordinator of the Church Missionary Society Ireland, was representing Archbishop Neill at the march. Up to last year he was Foreign Desk Editor at the Irish Times.

I want to start off this afternoon by saying how ashamed I was, how shocked I was, how horrified I was, to hear George Bush talking about this war and using terms like 'Crusade'.

I was ashamed, and I was shocked, and I was horrified to see George Bush make his war speeches in front of a life-size neon cross. Ashamed that he did it on, of all days, Martin Luther King Day.

This is an ugly war, and there is a real danger that some people in Washington want to see this war as the war that Samuel Huntingdon described as a clash of civilizations. But Baghdad has always been a civilised city: when Christians in Europe were using the Inquisition and persecution against Christians, Jews and Muslims, the Muslims of Baghdad were respecting and tolerating Jews and Christians. We have so much to learn from them about civilisation and civilised behaviour.

There are people who want to use this war to pit Christians against Muslims. But that cannot happen. That must not happen.

If this happens, two minorities are facing real dangers, real fears, today. Iraq has long tolerated its Christian minority. It is a pluralist society, and whatever the wrongs of Saddam Hussein and his regime -- and they are many -- Iraq has a lot to teach us in Ireland about pluralism and tolerance.

And the second minority that must be feeling unsure, uneasy, unsafe, today, is the minority of millions of Muslims living in Europe.

Let us stop and think of how the threat and talk of Crusade, how loose language like that must make many Muslims feel unsure and insecure today. There are 20,000 Muslims in Ireland today. They are a peaceful and beautiful community. To those Muslims who are here today, I want to assure you today that you are my brothers and sisters. We are all Children of Abraham. I am proud of you as Irish citizens and your contribution to the life of this country. As a Christian, I am confident of your place beside me as sisters and brothers. And in your own words, I want to greet you: Salaam Aleikum: May peace be with you.

The word Islam and the word salaam have the very ideal of peace at their heart. If only those who call themselves Christians and who decided to wage this war could also have peace in their hearts, could, in Christ's words, "love one another as I have loved you."

I want to assure you my Muslim brothers and sisters here this afternoon that there is no place in Christian thinking for a Crusade. I want to assure you that this can never be a Christian war, that this is not a war against Islam.

Those who are standing beside Muslims in the crowd now can turn to them and wish them:

Peace be with you