WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of a group that monitors religious
persecution says there's new hope for Libya's small indigenous
Christian community now that longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been killed.

The Rev. Carl Moeller of Open Doors USA says Christian foreigners who were working in Libya fled the country during this year's conflict, and Libyan Christians with Muslim backgrounds have been laying low.

But he says there's a spiritual hunger there, and Christian workers report they've been able to bring more Bibles and Christian literature into Libya in the past nine months than in the previous nine years.

Moeller is urging Christians to pray for their fellow believers in Libya, because it's unclear whether the new regime will allow religious freedom or impose strict Islamic law.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)