As they do every year near Easter, the parishioners of Baghdad's Greek Catholic Church will drape the statues of saints in black today and then gather around a prone likeness of Christ to pray.
Then they will leave the church door open and walk out to visit the half-dozen other Christian churches in the neighborhood, pausing for prayer at each one. "This year we begin anew in many ways," said the church's 30-year-old priest, the Rev. Carlo Aziz, as a small children's choir practiced for Sunday's celebratory mass. "People haven't been free here. But maybe this year we can speak our hearts. This is in the spirit of Easter, this new life for Iraq."
Less than two weeks after the fall of Baghdad, Iraq's Christians -- who make up about 3 percent of the population in this largely Muslim country -- will mark a special Easter this year, the first in more than two decades without Saddam Hussein.
That is a cause for celebration among some Christians, who criticize the ousted regime for squandering the nation's oil wealth and terrorizing political opponents.
"Saddam was like the pharaoh," said Moid Unan, a member of one of Baghdad's Armenian Catholic churches. "The soldiers made us happy when they removed him."
But many other Christians say the removal of Saddam's regime, which was largely tolerant of their faith and included high-ranking Christians, raises new fears. Over more than a dozen years of bitter poverty under Saddam's rule and U.S. sanctions, religious fervor has grown, especially strong among Iraq's Shiite Muslims.
Shiite imams are frequently mentioned in Baghdad as leading candidates for Iraq's presidency. That has raised some concerns that a new and more strongly Muslim regime, or simply widespread social disorder in the wake of war, could erode the country's long history of religious tolerance.
"Saddam made no difference between Christians and Muslims. Under Saddam there were no restrictions for us. We could practice our celebrations with no annoyances," said Naci, 49, a Greek Catholic parishioner who would not give his first name. But now, he said, he worries that "maybe a new regime could be tough with the Christians."
About 95 percent of Iraqis are Muslim, but in many regards Iraq's secular government has been one of the most religiously tolerant in the conflict-torn Middle Eastern region.
Iraqi Muslims and Christians live side-by-side in Baghdad's neighborhoods, sharing meals and friendships. Christians wear crosses openly, and central Baghdad neighborhoods are dotted with large Christian churches, most marked with tall crosses and, in one case, a huge stone relief of the Last Supper.
"All Islamic people are our brothers in this country. There is no difference between us," said Robert Pleepos, 36, a member of Baghdad's Armenian Catholic church. "All my friends are Muslims, and there is the same law for Muslims and Christians."
The bitterest religious conflict has come in crackdowns by Saddam's minority Sunni government on political opponents in the Shiite-dominated south of Iraq, particularly after uprisings there during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Saddam's government included a number of highly placed Christians, including Deputy Prime MinisterTariq Aziz. The majority of Iraq's Christians are Assyrian Catholics, descendants of the nation's ancient regime of Babylon now known as Chaldeans, but the Greek Roman Catholic, Armenian Catholic and other churches are represented as well.
The most chafing restriction Saddam put on Christians, Pleepos said, was to ban the use of Christian names for newborns several years ago. Yusuf and Mariam -- the local version of Joseph and Mary -- were permitted, but no others, he said. And under Iraqi law, Muslims are forbidden from converting to Christianity, a crime punishable by death.