over 120 others earlier this month was aimed at Lebanese Christians, a human rights watch-dog revealed Friday, November 28.
The well informed Barnabas Fund, which investigates the plight of Christians in mainly Muslim nations, said it has learned from a spokesman of the international terrorist network Al-Qaida that the bombers "were targeting mainly Americans and Christians."
"Months of surveillance had revealed (to Al-Qaida) that the inhabitants (of the al-Muhaya residential complex) were mainly Americans and Lebanese Christians. Both groups were deemed legitimate targets as enemies of Islam," the Barnabas Fund said.
"Of the seventeen people killed (among them five children), seven were Lebanese while among the 122 injured some 90 were Lebanese," the organization established.
WESTERN LIFESTYLE
It stressed the world media wrongly "focused its attention on the targeting of Arabs and Muslims living a western lifestyle, claiming that killing of Muslims would backfire and weaken support for the terrorist group. Some saw it as mainly aimed at destabilizing the Saudi Royal family."
Indigenous Christians living in Muslim lands have long been a target of radical Islamist violence, analysts say.
"Violence against Christians is also part of their strategy to destabilize the regime and expose its inability to ensure the safety of Christians under its protection. It is also part of a wider strategy to purge Christianity from the Arabian Peninsula and from the Muslim world as it is hoped that many will flee to the West because of the fear of further attacks," noted The Barnabas Fund.
