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Like many interviewed by the Western press today, George Abouna, who attends St. Elya's Chaldean Church, said Iraqi Christians expected to be targeted soon. "We knew it was a matter of time before they got to us," he told The Telegraph. "They are trying to divide Iraq but they will never succeed. When will they learn that only peace and love can restore our country? I pray for their forgiveness."

But who are they? So far no group has taken credit for the church bombings. Iraqis quoted in today's papers seem united in their assertion that the attack must have come from non-Iraqi troublemakers, but few details have yet emerged.

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, however, lays the blame squarely on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda-linked Jordanian who has taken credit for several terrorist actions in Iraq, including several of the recent beheadings.

"There is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of Zarqawi," Rubaie told Reuters. "Zarqawi and his extremists are basically trying to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians in Iraq. It's clear they want to drive Christians out of the country."

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh was less specific. "Sources of danger," he told the Associated Press, "are represented by al-Qaida's followers and supporters of the former [Saddam Hussein] regime."

Brother Louis, a deacon at Our Lady of Salvation, seemed to agree with Rubaie in surmising the terrorist's motivation. "What are the Muslims doing? Does this mean that they want us out?" he asked the Associated Press. "Those people who commit these awful criminal acts have nothing to do with God. They will go to hell."

Reemon Merghi, a Christian who saw the Armenian church bombing from his apartment, made a similar condemnation in an interview with The Washington Post. "This is God's house. Those who did this may think they will go to heaven, but they will go to hell. Maybe they think they are going to make Muslims and Christians fight each other, but we are like one family living in one house."

Others agree:

"We have lived with Muslims for thousands of years," he said. "Nothing like this ever happened before. They cannot be Iraqis. They came to make trouble in the country." — Christian businessman, Fadel Aziz, quoted by The New York Times.

"Whoever did this has no religion and principle. No religion accepts such acts of sabotage and murder. They want to create civil strife between us and the Muslims." — Samir Behnam, who was praying inside the Assyrian Catholic church when it was attacked, quoted by The Guardian.

"What are they targeting? Churches and mosques are places to give prayers to God. It's the same. These terrorists don't differentiate between anybody anymore, between innocent and guilty, Christian and Muslim." — Nazhat Abd, outside St. Elya's, quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

Some Iraqis, however, say Christians are being targeted because they share their religion with the occupying U.S. forces. A gruesome Washington Post sidebar describing the effects of the attack ends with this quote: "The Americans are responsible for this."

Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi seems to have overstepped the facts in countering this line of thinking. The attack, he told the Associated Press, "isn't against Muslims or Christians. This is against Iraq." It sounds ridiculous, because of course the attack is against Christians. What else could a coordinated attack on church services be? But Abawi isn't wrong to include Muslims.

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August (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48