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Today's Top Five Stories

1. Christians warned they'll face wrath from Muhammad depiction uproar
With tens of thousands of Muslims rioting and demonstrating around the world against published caricatures of Muhammad, Christians fear they'll face a violent backlash. The Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, Iraq, told Reuters that Sunday's church bombings were the result of the cartoons, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Christians in Palestine are nervous that they'll be next—and they're not just paranoid, says the London Times: "A leaflet handed out by the militant groups Islamic Jihad and Fatah warned 'infidels' that there are Muslims who 'are tough and ready to become a martyr for their religion' and that 'European provocations have placed offices and churches under fire.'" The Times says Hamas has promised Christians protection, but The Washington Times says others are worried that life under Hamas will be difficult after the demonstrations die down. In related news, a brief line in today's Wall Street Journal is awfully cryptic: "Evangelical Protestants split on whether U.S. should deal with Hamas; 53 percent of nonevangelicals favor diplomacy." So 53 percent doesn't constitute a split? (There's no additional information on the poll.)

2. Anti-Christian militants kill six in the Philippines
At about 1 o'clock this morning, a militant group attacked homes on the Philippine island of Jolo, demanding that residents answer whether they were Christians or Muslims. Three men, two women, and an eight-month-old boy were killed in the attack. Six others, including three children, survived with injuries. One was a Muslim married to a Christian; the others were Christians. The attackers may have been part of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has kidnapped American missionaries in the past. Jolo is an Abu Sayyaf stronghold, says The Philippine Inquirer.

3. Six churches burn in Alabama, arson suspected
One of the six churches was under construction, and its fire may be unrelated. But as for the rest, "of course it's arson," Jim Cavanaugh, regional director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms told The Birmingham News. "You don't have accidental fires at six churches." And Alabama knows about church fires. "We dealt with all that hate in the '70s and then the resurgence in the '90s and here we are again," Cavanaugh said. "It will be interesting to see what the motive is," he said. "You could have vandalism, hate against religion, or even race-based. These are the obvious, and most likely, motives." Maybe not race—"four of the churches … were predominantly white and Southern Baptist, affiliated with the Bibb County Baptist Association. One was a black Baptist church," says the News.

4. New Orleans religious leaders unite
Bruce Nolan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune has done an amazing job at covering the religious aspects of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. His informative and inspirational piece today on the unity of religious leaders is well worth the read:

A remarkable interfaith gathering of many of New Orleans' major religious leaders urged the city's political leadership and citizens Thursday to accept that much of the city is permanently gone. They encouraged their members to come to the planning table willing to rebuild a better New Orleans, lest the city's halting recovery stall completely.

The summons, which seemed to contain equal doses of tough love and compassion, came from an extraordinary assembly of religious leaders speaking with a single voice not heard in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina. …

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February (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50