Iman Chairman condemns attacks on Religious Sites
Miércoles, 8 Mayo 2013
The Chairman of the Iman Foundation, Ribal Al-Assad, today issued a plea to halt the destruction of sites and artefacts of religious significance by extremist groups.
Recently there has been a rise in the destruction of historic religious monuments in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in Syria and Libya where rogue factions have been systematically razing sites of religious significance.
Among sites destroyed includes the minaret of the 12th century Umayyad Mosque in Aleppo, the mausoleum of Ja'far al-Tayyarand, the Presbyterian church in Aleppo ,the mausoleum of Hojr ibn Oday in Adra, the Holy shrine of Hazrat Sakina,
the Holy shrine of Sayeda Zeinab and a 15th century Sufi shrine in Tripoli; all completely ruined. Alongside this other sites have been looted like the historic Jobar Synagogue in Damascus and churches in Jdeideh and Ghasaniyeh in Latakia.
Condemning the destruction, Ribal Al-Assad, Chairman of the Iman Foundation said:
“The extremist minority who perpetrated these acts have in one foul swoop wiped out centuries of heritage, culture and tradition. These acts serve to try to intimidate those who have beliefs different to their own, in reality all they achieve is the destruction of their collective history.
Quite simply these are cowardly and shameful acts - those who desecrate and destroy monuments in this way are vandals who have taken something magnificent and turned it into dust. I am sorry for the loss of these sites, most of which are irreplaceable, and I call on the international community to do all they can to stop this horrific and gratuitous destruction.”
