The bishops of Oriental Churches on Thursday demanded Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents” in the East, urging also parties financing terrorist organizations “to immediately stop arming” these extremist groups.

“We call on Muslim religious authorities, Sunnis and Shiites, to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and other innocents,” Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar said after a congregation of the bishops of Oriental Churches at Diman, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's summer seat.

The conferees discussed the situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria, amid the rising threat of extremist jihadists who are occupying large parts of these neighboring countries and persecuting Christian minorities there, giving them a choice between converting to Islam or leaving their lands.

“The conferees discussed the rise of takfiri groups that are violating the sanctity of churches and attacking citizens,” Matar said.

He continued: “The situation reached a stage in which Christians were wrongly exiled from the lands of their ancestors without any justification. The expulsion of Christians from Mosul and Nineveh Province in Iraq is not an accident or a forced migration out of fear, but it is a decision taken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and which is contrary to international charters.” [Link]