Sayyed Al-Sistani affirms significance of efforts concerted to reject violence and hatred

INA-  Baghdad


Supreme religious authority Ali Al-Sistani stressed on Wednesday the importance of concerted efforts to reject violence and hatred, while stressing the achievement of justice in various societies.

Sayyed Al- Sistani's office said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "His Eminence Sayyed Al-Sistani received before noon this afternoon Mr. Miguel Angel Moratinos, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in charge of developing a plan of the international organization to protect religious sites after the attacks they were subjected to in various places in the world in recent years."

"His Eminence listened to the explanation he gave about that plan, the principles on which it is based and the procedures followed in this regard," it added.

During the meeting, Sistani stressed "the significance of concerted efforts in promoting a culture of peaceful coexistence, rejecting violence and hatred, and consolidating the values of harmony based on the care of rights and mutual respect among adherents of different religions and intellectual trends."

Sayyed Al-Sistani affirmed that "the tragedies suffered by many peoples and ethnic and social groups in many parts of the world are the result of the intellectual and religious persecution practiced against them, the suppression of fundamental freedoms and the absence of social justice, stressing the need to address the background of these rejected and condemned phenomena in all cases, and to work hard to achieve a degree of justice and tranquility in various societies.

Sayyed Al-Sistani wished Moratinos success in carrying out his mission and conveyed his greetings to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.