Photo: CNS/Alaa Al-Marjani, Reuters
CHALDEAN Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad implored moderate Muslims to reject “terrorism in the name of religion” and step up to challenge the actions of Islamic State militants against minority communities in Iraq.
During an international conference of Muslim and Christian leaders, Patriarch Sako called the situation in Iraq an “unprecedented historic crisis” and called on Muslims in attendance to exercise their responsibility to protect Christian, Yezidi and other minority communities.
Aid to the Church in Need distributed the letter Patriarch Sako read to the conference.
“With this letter,” the patriarch told participants on November 18, “I would like to express my pain and the pain of your Christian brothers and sisters in the face of our calamity, appealing to your conscience and goodwill to do something for the liberation of their towns, recovery of their property and restitution of their rights. Accordingly, I request a drastic change, because it is your responsibility to find an answer, which has to come from you and not from an outside force,” he said during a two-day conference organised by the KAICIID Dialogue Centre, also known as the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue.
CNS
