Syria: Kidnapped priest says 'all faiths suffer under IS/Daesh'

Fr Jacques Murad

A priest who survived being kidnapped by IS/Daesh, has said that it is "inappropriate" to say that there is an ongoing genocide of Christians in the Middle East. While Christians have suffered terribly, so have Muslims, Father Jacques Murad a Syrian Catholic monk from the Deir Mar Musa Community, said.

"The victims of violence in Syria are all Syrians, Muslims and Christians. And the poor are those who suffer most, those who have not had a chance to escape." he said.

Father Jacques said: "The atrocities of war have inflicted torments on all communities, people of all faiths. The first victims of Daesh were Sunni Muslims. In this sense, I consider it inappropriate to say that there is an ongoing 'genocide' of Christians in the Middle East. Christian communities who have been living in those lands since the beginning of the Christian message were certainly affected, but it is not right to present Christians as the only victims of the war. This would only increase sectarianism."

According to Fr Jacques, reconciliation will take time: "We must ask first of all God to heal mortal wounds. We, as Christians, can do something important: despite the hardships we are going through, we can show our solidarity with fellow Muslims who have suffered like us and most of us. In this way we also help the Christian communities of the Middle East to remain in the lands where they have always lived."

Fr Jacques is currently in Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he ministers to many displaced Christians from the Nineveh Plain, who fled before the advance of the IS jihadists.

In May 2015, Daesh militiamen had abducted him, taking him from the monastery of Mar Elian, in the Syrian city of Qaryatayn, and he had been held for months, and then released in Qaryatayn.

He said: "While in prison, every day I was afraid that it would be the last. On the eighth day, in Raqqa, a chief jihadist came to my cell and asked me to consider my abduction as a sort of spiritual retreat. I was impressed by those words. I am sure that the commitment of my community to help all those in need in Qaryatayn region, both Christian and Muslim, insured that all the 250 Christians of that city, even after being deported by the jihadists, eventually found freedom, and were safe and sound."