The Vatican denounces ISIS crimes, calls for wide condemnation

Vatican, SANA – The Vatican has condemned the crimes perpetrated by the terrorist organization of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) against civilians, urging all religious leaders to denounce these crimes and the attempts to justify them in the name of religion.

“The dramatic situation of the Christians, the Yazidis, and other minority religious and ethnic communities in Iraq demands that religious leaders, and above all Muslim religious leaders, people engaged in inter-religious dialogue and all people of good will take a clear and courageous stance. All must be unanimous in their unambiguous condemnation of these crimes and denounce the invoking of religion to justify them,” the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said in a statement on Tuesday.

It called on Muslim clergymen to denounce the brutality of the ISIS militants, saying there was no justification for such heinous crimes.

The Vatican statement asked: “Otherwise, what credibility will religions, their followers and their leaders, have? What credibility could the inter-religious dialogue have?”

“No reason, certainly not religion, could justify such barbarism,” the council said.

It condemned “the heinous practice of decapitation, crucifixion, stringing up bodies in public places, kidnapping Christian and Yazidis women as well as the barbarous practice of genital mutilation.”

R. Milhem / H. Said