Iraqi Christians marked Good Friday with prayers for a resurrection of peace and normality in the war-torn country where they enjoyed relative religious freedom under Saddam Hussein's secular rule.
"We are praying that the Lord helps us. We need peace and security for Iraq. We pray every day that the Lord protects our homes, our people and our country," said Mr Edward Fransu Abu Ramir (53) after a Protestant church service in Baghdad.
"We don't have electricity and water. We don't have the basics for living. We still don't have stability," he said.
Baghdad's streets were busy yesterday as Christians marked the suffering and death of Jesus. But many shops remain closed for lack of power, many buildings have been ransacked by looters and water supplies are still disrupted.
So far churches, like mosques, appear to be off limits to looters, and there are no signs that Christians were deliberately targeted in the chaos that engulfed Baghdad after US troops arrived.
But many Christians worry that the collapse of Saddam's government and the advent of democracy in a Muslim majority nation could spell an end to the relative religious freedom they enjoyed under the secular Baath Party. Some fear a backlash from those who considered them allies of Saddam.
Iraq's Christians say their roots go back to the first century when the apostle Thomas evangelised Iraq, then Mesopotamia. But today there are only an estimated 700,000 Christians in a country of some 26 million people, most of whom are Muslim.
