Focus on religious groups working together

Five girls are playing what looks to be a war game - they crouch down, pointing their fingers as if they are toting guns and making shooting noises. One by one, they fall to the floor of the classroom of the Saint Hannah Orphanage for Girls in Adamiyah, a neighbourhood in the western part of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. A girl guided by one of the nuns and a man playing an electric piano sing a song of salvation off to the side. Even in Arabic, the song sends shivers up the spine as two of the girls comfort each other. The male teacher continues to coach the girls as they move through their paces, making gestures with his hands and shouting "zein" - "good" - when they do what he expects. "She is singing about the real meaning of freedom," Sister Anne, who goes by only one name as part of her commitment to the Mariam Order of nuns in Baghdad, told IRIN. "After a battle such as the one in Baghdad last year, people thought they could do whatever they wanted to. Freedom means taking responsibility for your actions. God can help you." St Hannah's only takes care of Christian girls, although they don't publicise that. Also slightly unusual is that the British-based Muslim Hands aid agency is providing food, clothing and cooking gas to the orphanage. In return, the nuns often give meals to poor Muslims who come begging for handouts, Sister Anne said. Islamic Relief, another British-based aid agency working in Baghdad, also gave food and other necessities to the orphanage following the fall of Baghdad to US-led forces last year. "I wasn't surprised to see them, because we would do the same thing if we had aid to give," Sister Anne said of the original overture by Muslim Hands. "The most important thing is to take care of the human being." But attacks and rumours of attacks against religious figures have increased tension in the last year across Iraq. The assassination of the leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim, last autumn was the first in a string of incidents. Al-Hakim represented the estimated 60 percent Shi'ite majority in Iraq. Most recently, the Sunni Muslim religious leader of Boratha mosque, who is believed to be more tolerant of US-led forces, has received death threats. "I don't think it's a strange thing," Nawfal al-Rawi, director of the Muslim Hands group's Iraq office, told IRIN of the Muslim aid to a Christian group. "All of us are local employees, so we are Iraqis, and they are Iraqis. "We have good relations with everyone, whether they be friends or neighbours." Sister Anne said Muslim groups approached the private orphanage last summer, asking if they could help in the vacuum. She said no one had ever harassed her organisation, although there's no sign on the building that almost 20 girls and numerous nuns are living there. Under former President Saddam Hussein, private orphanages were not officially allowed to operate, Sister Anne said. "After the war, we were respected by other people," Sister Anne said. "There was no problem about a religious issue." A spokeswoman at Islamic Relief, a British-based aid agency, acknowledges that religious fault lines have grown in recent months, however. As with Muslim Hands, and the orphanage itself, Islamic Relief is non-denominational in its aid, spokeswoman Nagham Baha told IRIN. "After the war, things got more 'three-dimensional'," Baha said, indicating that people of different religious backgrounds had become more distrustful of each other. "I don't know why things have changed now. We always have lived together peacefully." All the girls at the orphanage know is that they are happy in their home. Many smile and sing in the newly painted building as they prepare for a festival they plan to hold in a week. "I want to be an actress when I grow up after learning about this play," said Besma, a 14-year-old orphan who lost her father to a long illness. Her mother died soon after, she said, and relatives brought her to the orphanage. Mariam, 7, said, smiling as she held onto Sister Anne's hand after playing her part in the rehearsal of a play: "I like this very much."