Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA
Aug 2 2004
Christians fearful after attacks
By Pamela Constable
The Washington Post
Monday, August 2, 2004
BAGHDAD — Car bombs exploded outside at least five Christian
churches in two Iraqi cities during Sunday evening services in
coordinated attacks that sent terrified and bleeding worshippers
fleeing into the streets as stained-glass windows shattered and
flames engulfed the buildings. More than a dozen people were killed
and scores injured in the assaults, the first mass violence against
minority Christians who have long coexisted peacefully with Iraqi
Muslims.
The blasts struck four churches in Baghdad and at least one in the
northern city of Mosul within 90 minutes as night fell. Black smoke
billowed into the air over the darkening capital. Ambulances ferried
victims to hospitals and firefighters hosed flaming buildings and
cars, while police fired into the air and U.S. troops tried to
maintain order as people milled angrily in the affected
neighborhoods.
“We were lining up for communion, the holiest moment in the Mass.
Suddenly the explosion happened, and glass rained down from the
windows,” said a weeping, middle-aged woman at the bedside of her
wounded elderly mother in Ibin Nafeas Hospital. “Those who did this
are without religion,” added the woman, who did not want to give her
name. “This is not Muslims. Muslims don’t do this to their brothers.”
Witnesses and victims from three of the bombed churches in Baghdad
expressed similar sentiments, blaming the attacks on extremists
seeking to sow division between Christians and majority Muslims.
“This is God’s house. Those who did this may think they will go to
heaven, but they will go to hell,” said Reemon Merghi, 24, a
Christian who witnessed the blast at an Armenian church from his
apartment nearby. “Maybe they think they are going to make Muslims
and Christians fight each other, but we are like one family living in
one house.”
The first bomb in Baghdad exploded about 6:30 p.m. outside an
Armenian Catholic church in the Karrada district, shortly after
evening Mass had begun. As people poured outside in panic and police
and rescue crews raced to the scene, a second blast detonated about
20 minutes later outside an Assyrian Catholic church, Lady of
Salvation, about a half-mile away.
Within the hour, two more bombs had exploded next to a Chaldean
Christian church in the Doura neighborhood in southwest Baghdad and
outside a fourth church, Father Ilyas, in the New Baghdad district.
Police said the four blasts appeared to have come from booby-trapped
cars and were not suicide bombs. However, Reuters news service quoted
a U.S. military spokesman as saying that three of the four attacks in
Baghdad were known to be suicide car bombings.
In Mosul, about 220 miles north, officials said a car bomb exploded
next to the Father Bolus Church, a Chaldean Christian congregation,
as worshippers were leaving evening Mass, damaging the building and a
number of cars. They said rocket-propelled grenades were also fired
at the church. There were unconfirmed reports of a blast at a second
Mosul church. No details were available.
Before yesterday’s bombings, there had been a number of bomb attacks
against Christian-owned shops that sell alcohol in Baghdad and other
cities, but none against Christian places of worship. In January, a
minibus carrying a group of Iraqi Christian women to work at a U.S.
military base west of Baghdad was followed and attacked by gunmen,
who killed several of the passengers.
In a recent interview, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Baghdad, the
Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, said Christians in Iraq were becoming
fearful of growing Islamic militancy since the fall of president
Saddam Hussein last spring, and that some were trying to leave the
country.
“There is very real freedom,” he said, “but we cannot enjoy it
because of general insecurity, the high level of fanaticism and the
belief of some Islamic leaders that Iraqi Christians are being
assimilated into the coalition forces, who are perceived as
Christians or even crusaders.”
There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, about 3 percent of
the population. Most are Chaldeans or Eastern rite Catholics who are
independent from Rome but recognize the pope. There are also large
communities of Armenian, Assyrian, Roman or Latin rite, Greek and
Syriac Catholics, as well as some Protestant groups. In Baghdad
alone, where most Christians live, there are at least 50 churches.
Historically, Christians and Muslims have enjoyed peaceful relations
in Iraq, and Saddam’s government suppressed Islamic extremism while
allowing Christians to worship. But in the 15 months since the
U.S.-led invasion, militant Islamic groups have become active and
organized. Young Iraqi Shiites have formed a militia, while Islamic
militants with links to al-Qaida have assassinated officials,
kidnapped foreigners and bombed police stations.
Some distraught worshippers yesterday echoed Sleiman’s concern that
Iraqi Christians are being targeted because they represent a religion
that Islamic extremists associate with the U.S.-led forces here.
Recent terrorist attacks have focused on foreigners working with
companies that supply U.S. military bases and on Iraqis who
collaborate with U.S. authorities or join the Iraqi security forces.
“I am really frightened,” said Farah Isa, 30, a Christian who was
hurrying her two small sons home past the Lady of Salvation church
shortly after the bomb blast there. “Now these people are attacking
us directly, and during the day. What will we do? What is our fault
if the Americans are Christians? Do they consider us infidels? They
have no religion.”
In other developments, earlier yesterday a suicide bomber blew up his
Toyota Land Cruiser outside a police station in Mosul, killing at
least five people and wounding 53, officials said.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle belonging to the
BBC, killing three passersby and wounding the driver.