Bin Laden death sparks security alerts world wide: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 1.

Police are guarding St. Luke's Church in Abbottabad and other Pakistani churches to ward off revenge attacks following the death of Osama bin Laden

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani mountain redoubt has prompted security warnings and mixed feelings from Anglican leaders across the globe.

On 1 May, US Navy SEAL commandos assaulted the al-Qaeda leader’s walled compound in Abbottabad and killed bin Laden in a gun battle. While speculation that bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan had been rife for several years, most experts believed he was holed up in the rugged tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan, not in a former British hill station living in a luxury compound.

“The world would not wish Osama was alive,” Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa told reporters after bin Laden’s death was announced by US President Barack Obama. “We hope this is the first step to wiping out terrorism,” the Bishop said.

The killing of the terrorist leader has led to heightened security round the world. In Nairobi, scene of a 1998 al-Qaeda attack, security around government buildings and commercial centres has been raised and police spot checks introduced.

“What happened in Pakistan is totally related to Kenya and East Africa,” anti-terrorism police commander Nicholas Kamwende told the Star. “The threat of terrorism is real and everyone has to be on the look-out even as police do their work.”

In London, the Foreign Office stated the killing of bin Laden “may lead to an increase in violence and terrorist activity” and urged Britons abroad to “remain vigilant, exercise caution in all public places and avoid demonstrations, large crowds of people and public events.”

On 3 May Prime Minister David Cameron warned that Britain “will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead.”

Church leaders in Pakistan have also urged care. The Bishop of Lahore Alexander Malik said the “security of Christian institutions” had been “beefed up due to potential threats” of retaliation out of concern that terrorist rage at the death of bin Laden may blow back onto Pakistan’s Christians.

“We are a soft target as they cannot attack America,” the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence Saldanha told a Catholic news agency. “We demand security. The government should control any retaliation.”

The resort town of Abbottabad, northeast of Rawalpindi, served as the headquarters for the British deputy commissioner of the Hazara District and the cantonment for the 5^th Ghurkha Rifles, and remains the regimental centre for the Frontier Force of Pakistan, as well as a popular summer holiday destination.

The Association of Churches of the Hazara Division, a group of five Churches around Abbottabad including St Luke’s Church — the former British garrison chapel — have been given police protection and its leaders are staying off the streets and out of the public eye. Bishop Malik added that “many Christians are hesitant to publicly talk about Osama bin Laden’s death.”

Peter Marsden, Director of The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), reported that in Iraq “we are seeing massively increased security following the killing of Osama bin Laden. The security services are clearly bracing themselves for trouble. These are very dangerous times to be in Baghdad.”

“We hope and pray that al-Qaeda’s hold over Iraq’s people and politics will diminish with bin Laden’s passing,” Mr Marsden told The Church of England Newspaper, noting “for our part, we don’t see anyone’s violent death as a cause for celebration.”

American church leaders were also conflicted over the death of the terrorist leader. “As followers of Jesus Christ we believe that every life is precious, every person created in the image of God,” Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina said.

“While justice has been done it is not cause for celebration, but a call to solemn dedication of ourselves to work for a world where all may dwell in peace,” Bishop Curry said.

Writing on his Facebook page, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham said: “Osama bin Laden’s death is a military success, but he was a human being better put on trial as a criminal than killed in a way that some will call martyrdom.

“We also have to note he was in Pakistan, and known to be so. The billions spent and hundreds of thousands killed in conventional war in Iraq, and even the fourth Afghan War, seem to have had nothing at all to do with his demise,” Bishop Wilson said.