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Iraqi Muslim Leaders Denounce Church Blasts
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Smoke
drifts after an explosion next to an Assyrian church in Baghdad
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By
Mazen Ghazi, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD
, August 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Iraqi Muslim
leaders strongly condemned Monday, August 2, a series of church
bombings in
Baghdad
and
Mosul
that killed at least 15 people, saying the aim was to spark religious
strife.
The
Muslim Scholars Association,
Iraq
’s highest Sunni body, denounced the bombings as an “inhumane”
bid to disrupt
Iraq
’s national unity by targeting the country’s Christian minority.
“We
regret that such criminal acts have targeted our Christian brothers
and we urge them to display restraint as did before their Muslim
brothers, when their mosques and holy places were targeted as well,”
spokesman Mohammad Bashar Al-Faidi told a press conference in
Baghdad
.
Offering
his heartfelt condolences for the Iraqi Christian community, he said
targeting places of worship was in no way the work of Iraqis,
stressing the unprecedented nature of such attacks throughout the
centuries.
Faidi
also said he is pretty sure that the bombings glaringly bear the
hallmarks of foreign powers that benefit from the country’s current
state of anarchy.
Association
member Sheikh Abdul Jalai Al-Fahdawi said Islam is strictly against
targeting civilians, including Christians and Jews.
Under
Islamic
Shari
`ah, non-Muslims possess special rights irrespective of whether they
constitute a minority or a majority. Islam makes it clear that Muslims
are
not allowed under any circumstances to burn holy places or books
of non-Muslims or to abuse them.
Fahdawi
said the terrorists strike indiscriminately, noting that one of the
car bombs taking its toll on a nearby mosque was a case in point.
Grand
Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite Muslim
spiritual leader, also condemned the attacks.
“We
denounce and condemn those terrible crimes... We should all,
government and people, be working together in order to put an end to
the attacks against Iraqis,” said a statement from his office in the
holy city of
Najaf
.
So
far no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
But
the interim Iraqi government blamed Al-Zarqawi for the grisly
bombings.
"There
is no shadow of a doubt that this bears the blueprint of
Zarqawi," National Security Adviser Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie told
Reuters news agency.
"Zarqawi
and his extremists are basically trying to drive a wedge between
Muslims and Christians in
Iraq
. It's clear they want to drive Christians out of the country,"
he added.
The
coordinated car bombings were timed for Sunday evening services in
Baghdad
and the northern city of
Mosul
. Car bombs exploded outside around five churches, killing at least 15
people and wounding many more.
An
Interior Ministry source told Reuters there had been four blasts at
churches in
Baghdad
and two in
Mosul
.
In
the deadliest attack, a car bomber drove into the car park of a
Chaldean church in southern
Baghdad
before detonating his vehicle, killing at least 12 people as
worshippers left the building, witnesses said.
A
US
military spokesman said three of the four attacks in
Baghdad
were known to be car bombings.
An
explosion at the Armenian Church in
Baghdad
shattered stained glass windows and hurled chunks of hot metal.
Another bomb exploded 15 minutes later at a nearby Assyrian church.
In
Mosul
, officials said at least one person was killed in a blast at a church
and 15 wounded.
The
US
military said the attackers fired a rocket at the Mar Polis Catholic
Church before detonating a car bomb and put the toll from the attack
at one dead and seven wounded.
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Iraqi
Christians flee the site of two car bombs (AFP)
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United
Front
Emmanuel
Delly, the patriarch of the Chaldean church, the largest Christian
denomination in
Iraq
, also appealed for a united front.
“Christians
and Muslims must stand together for the good of
Iraq
because we are one family,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Most
Christians pointed the finger at foreign fighters for waging the
attacks.
“This
was not done by Iraqis. It was done by people who don't know who God
is,” said Marie Butros, 35, a hospital secretary in the smart Karada
district, targeted by two of the bombs.
“Our
borders are open and a lot of foreigners can enter,” she added.
The
Vatican
has also condemned the blasts -- the first attacks on churches during
the 15-month
US
occupation -- echoing same concerns among Muslim leaders that they aimed
to inflame religious tensions.
"It
is terrible and worrying because it is the first time that Christian
churches are being targeted in
Iraq
,"
Vatican
deputy spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini told Reuters news agency.
Christians
account for about three percent of the population of
Iraq
(around 800,000 people), where attempts to provoke conflict have mainly
focused on Sunni Muslims and members of the Shiite Muslim majority.
In
March, coordinated
bombings during a Shiite religious ceremony killed more than 180 in
Baghdad
and
Karbala
.
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