Condemnation of Bloody Attacks on Churches in Iraq and Egypt
Al-Liqa’ Center held a meeting for leading clerics and lay people representing several sectors of Palestinians in the Bethlehem Governorate on the 5th of January 2011. Attendees discussed bloody attacks on Christian churches in Baghdad and Alexandria. They characterized these acts as unethical committed by savages who ignored heavenly principles, freedom of worship and human dignity. Attendees reiterated the need for national unity in Palestine, the rock that all attempts of disunity are being wrecked by it. A communiqué was issued by attendees urging Egyptian and Iraqi governments to continue to investigate this inhumane acts until culprits who commit wrongs to Islam, the religion of tolerance, and to national unity which the peoples of Egypt and Iraq, Muslims and Christian, have built throughout the centuries are brought to justice.
Attendees suggested several recommendations including the continuation of holding panels and meetings that focus on national unity and shared living in Palestine. They added as well suggestions that revolve around religious discourse’s focus on brotherly ties and national unity. There is also a dire need to organize a conference to discuss the importance of shared living and the respect of the “other” as a pre-requisite to setting up of our Palestinian state with Arab Jerusalem as its capital.
