those who are not muslims would not be considered as first citizens. see, i mjust looking at the words of another interesting and influential voice in the middle east christian community, harry hagopian. he s an international lawyer. he was executive secretary of the inter church committee injerusalem, assistant general secretary of the middle east council of churches, based in beirut, in lebanon. harry hagopian says we shouldn t, as christians, be in any way exclusivist in our approach to the work we do. he says, quote, today, perhaps more than at any other time, christians and muslims are condemned to solidarity. it is only in solidarity with each other that we can hope to vanquish tyranny, barbarity and fanaticism. do you agree? there was never in the history that christians have been
sectarian when it comes to their schools, hospitals, anything like that. i mean, you could go to, i mean, i m sure you travelled to lebanon and you ve seen what the christians institutions has offered to the whole country. yes, we have to unify all the efforts in fighting extremism. but do you work with muslims or do you regard your work as entirely in the christian community? every day. every day, whenever i see any, i meet any imams, i m addressing these issues friendly and without, really, i mean, attacking just to tell them this is the truth and this is the result of 1,400 years. we have to learn from this history. do you think then, do you agree with mr hagopian,
who worries that sometimes the international christian supporters of christians in iraq and in the wider middle east, they fail to actually embrace the muslim community. they see things, according to mr hagopian, in an exclusively christian prism, focusing on christian persecution, when the fact is, of course, that many other groups, muslims, yazidis, many others, are also facing persecution across the middle east region. he says, let s remember that. do you remember that? well, speaking of my experience, the people that i ve dealt with, like, people like ac and bishop conferences, knights of columbus, all the people who have helped me, they never said and encouraged me to only look at them. whoever comes to the door, looking for help, we are offering that help. of course, of course, there are some donors, for example, who would be interested, but this will not exclude others.
of the inter church committee injerusalem, assistant general secretary of the middle east council of churches, based in beirut, in lebanon. harry hagopian says we shouldn t, as christians, be in any way exclusivist in our approach to the work we do. he says, quote, today, perhaps more than at any other time, christians and muslims are condemned to solidarity. it is only in solidarity with each other that we can hope to vanquish tyranny, barbarity and fanaticism. do you agree? there was never in the history that christians have been sectarian when it comes to their schools, hospitals, anything like that. i mean, you could go to, i mean, i m sure you travelled to lebanon and you ve seen what the christians institutions has offered to the whole country. yes, we have to unify all the efforts in fighting extremism.
but do you work with muslims or do you regard your work as entirely in the christian community? every day. every day, whenever i see any, i meet any imams, i m addressing these issues friendly and without, really, i mean, attacking just to tell them this is the truth and this is the result of 1,400 years. we have to learn from this history. do you think then, do you agree with mr hagopian, who worries that sometimes the international christian supporters of christians in iraq and in the wider middle east, they fail to actually embrace the muslim community. they see things, according to mr hagopian, in an exclusively christian prism, focusing on christian persecution, when the fact is, of course, that many other groups, muslims, yazidis, many others, are also facing persecution across the middle east region.