The West ‘foments conflict between Muslims’

(ANSAmed) – VATICAN CITY, AUGUST 23 – There is a plan to destroy the Arab world for political and economic interests, Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rai told Radio Vaticano on Friday, just after deadly attacks in Lebanon. The Maronite Patriarch of Antioch said that ”there is a plan to intensify inter-confessional conflict in the Muslim world, between Sunnis and Shiites”. ”Unfortunately this is a policy that comes from abroad,” he added. ”There are countries, especially Western ones but also Eastern ones, that are fomenting these conflicts.” The explosions during Friday prayers shook the northern Lebanese city Tripoli on Friday, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, in a city which has seen brutal clashes between Sunni supporters of the Syrian opposition and Alawites connected with the Syrian regime under President Bashar Al-Assad. The current scenario, however, affects the entire area from Syria to Egypt.

”Everything that happens in the Middle East – whether in Egypt, Syria, or Iraq – is a two-dimensional war. In Iraq and Syria, the war is between Sunnis and Shiites, while in Egypt the war is between fundamentalists including the Muslim Brotherhood and moderates,” said the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, saying that the West also plays a part in fomenting these ”wars without end”. Cardinal Rai said that the result is that Christians are the ones to pay the highest price. ”As always,” he said, ”when there is chaos or war, Muslims in general attack Christians, they use them as scapegoats. I am sorry, but in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood were the ones to attack Coptic churches and Copts as well. Unfortunately this is the mentality of certain Muslims: every time there is a situation of chaos, Christians are attacked without even knowing why.

” In Lebanon, there is a tradition of coexistence that is now is severe danger due to growing conflict between Muslims. ”We Christians,” said the Catholic Maronite cardinal,” have been living alongside Muslims for 1,400 years, and we have spread the human and moral values of multi-confessionality, plurality, and modernity in these lands. Thanks to the presence of Christians, in our daily life in all of these Arab countries we have created a certain moderation in the Muslim world.” We are now ”watching the total destruction of everything that Christians have built over the past 1,400 years. At the same time, Christians are paying the price for these wars between Sunnis and Shiites, and between moderates and fundamentalists in Egypt.

” Cardinal Rai used the example of Egypt to say that ”the West contributed by giving billions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood, so that they could get into power.” And, ”once in power, they began to apply the Sharia, Islamic law. They took the country backwards.” Cardinal Rai said that he had already written to Pope Francis twice to ”explain to him what is happening” and to tell him ”the whole truth”. ”Unfortunately, the aim is to destroy the Arab world, and Christians are the ones paying the price,” he concluded. ”In Iraq, out of a million and a half Christians we have lost one million, without hearing a word from the international community.” (ANSAmed).