Syrian Church leader: Stop funding terrorist groups

Syrian Church leader: Stop funding terrorist groups

(Vatican Radio) A Church leader in Syria is calling for the international community to stop the funding of terrorist groups, after the attacks in Paris which killed over 120 people.

"We are deeply saddened and sorry. We express our condolences and solidarity with the victims of the massacre in Paris and throughout Europe,” said Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, O.F.M., the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo.

“Terrorism is an ideology that does not spare anyone,” he told the Fides news agency. “The Syrian people understand this very well... For  years,  we have suffered massacres and we live in fear.”

Bishop Khazen said world powers must “stop giving funds, weapons, and training to terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, and now, too, in Europe.”

 “Terrorism is a monster that you do not control, an ideology of death that does not respect anything or anyone, that kills everyone and everywhere,” he said.

“In Syria, we know this well, because for years we have suffered  from the terrorist attacks which have created thousands of refugees,” Bishop Khazen. “All of this happened while the international community was indifferent.”

He said in light of the Paris attacks, the world needs to find a strong and unified plan to counter terrorism.

“As we have said many times, terrorist groups such as the Islamic State are financed, armed, and trained by the great powers, for purely economic and political interests,” he said. “Who supports them? It is a question that has been raised by the Pope, unheeded.”

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