This is a trap.

Yesterday’s attacks on the churches were not very unexpected because the terrorists consider destroying this country their primary mission. They have attacked all Iraqis without discrimination, they murdered the She’at Muslims near their holy shrines, they attacked Sunni mosques, they attacked the IP near their stations and they assassinated our politicians and leaders and they will keep trying to attack anyone and anything to stop us from building this country but they will not defeat us, unless we submit to their evil plans; something we will never do.

I’ve tried to ask as many Iraqis as I could about their feelings and all Iraqis I met showed anger, contempt and bitterness about what happened but noone gave signs of despair.
I’ve watched many reactions on the internet and I found that many people considered what happened an aggression against Christians (and that this is what the terrorists want) while we in Iraq see it as a crime against Iraqis and this reaction is the last thing they want.

However, how the West views this is more important than our reactions as the message this time was sent to the West not to us.
This time they chose to attack what they think is a soft target and I believe that their choice is based on two sick wishes:
The first one: they think that by terrorizing the Iraqi Christian community the Iraqi Christians will get panicked and choose to leave Iraq and thus creating a situation of insecurity and distrust among Iraqis.

The second one: with these attacks they want to drag the West to believe that this a war on Christianity
and that it came as a reaction to the “war on Islam”. They want to give their war a religious shape to inflame religious sensitivities between Christians and Muslims and they want the Muslims in the West to be persecuted so that they can use it to make simple minded Muslims believe that the war on terror is a crusade.

I can say that I’m sure that the 1st one will not find a measurable success because as I mentioned earlier; in Iraq we think about the latest attacks just the same way we do about any previous ones.
As for the 2nd one, well... it’s up to you in the West and you can determine the way it affects you.
You need to be far-sighted when you decide how to respond to this test and I believe you can do that. So please, don’t fall in this trap.