BAGHDAD, Iraq — As the U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein raged, Iraq’s small Christian minority feared more than American bombs.
They expect to be targets of a growing tide of Islamic militancy now being encouraged in the secularized Arab state. Numbering fewer than 400,000, Iraq’s Christian community has in recent months become the object of overt discrimination by Islamist elements.
Attacks have ranged from verbal abuse and graffiti campaigns to stone-throwing and even brutal assassinations. Over the past few weeks, anti-Christian rhetoric has dominated Friday-prayer sermons in Baghdad s mosques.
Although Saddam Hussein initially kept religion out of Iraq’s political life, he began to encourage devotion to Islam after the 1991 Gulf War.
Four years ago, he launched a faith campaign to promote a revival of Islam, building scores of new mosques and religious schools across the country.
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