Could attacks on Kenyan churches spark violent Christian backlash?

Almost from the beginning of Kenya's military operation in Somalia, Islamist militants have threatened to bring the war home to Kenyans. 

For nine months, those threats have been fairly empty, comprised of a few lone-wolf grenade attacks on Nairobi bars. But with the July 1 attacks on Christian churches in the northeastern Kenyan town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, militants seem to be borrowing a page from Boko Haram, Al Qaeda-linked militants from Nigeria. Like the Boko Haram attacks, which have killed at least 1,000 people since July 2009, attacks on Christian churches have the potential to stir up sectarian conflict in a religiously diverse country like Kenya, where 83 percent of the population is Christian and 11 percent are Muslim.

On paper, Kenya is the stronger country, with a much more powerful economy, a professional Army, and a relatively tolerant and peaceful society that has avoided the self-destructive civil wars of other African countries. But Kenya's very openness – and its porous borders – could be its greatest weakness in a low-intensity conflict with Somali militants, analysts say, and religion could be the spark that ignites a Kenyan conflict within itself. 

“There is a religious angle to Kenya’s war with Al Shabab," says Dr. Godffrey Ngumi who teaches Religion and Philosophy at Kenyatta University. "The extremists feel they are cornered by an army from a Christian country. Their response is to attack the churches, which for them are weak points. They have not attacked Hindus or Buddhists. When they attack churches, the impact is bigger."

On July 1, suspected Islamists attacked two churches in Garissa, killing 17 and injuring more than 66 people in a style similar to that used by the Nigerian militants. One group shot dead two policemen guarding the Africa Inland Church (AIC), an Evangelical denomination, as another lobbed grenades at Our Lady of Consolata Roman Catholic Church. Islamists then proceeded to indiscriminately shoot the worshipers at AIC using  the dead police officers' weapons.

This attack was the biggest so far in the region where the denominations have been targeted since mid-October 2011, when Kenyan troops rolled into Somalia to pursue Al Shabab. As justification for its Operation Linda Nchi (Operation Protect the Country), Kenya accused the Islamic militants of killing and abducting its nationals, foreign aid workers, and tourists.

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