“Once again we affirm that terrorism cannot be justified by any religion”. The religious leaders of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia make this declaration in a joint appeal issued at the end of a meeting recently held in Moscow and attended by the Patriarch of Moscow Alexis II, Patriarch Aliya II of Georgia, Patriarch Garegin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church and Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshuqur Pasha-zade, president of the Supreme Moslem Council of the peoples of the Caucasus. In their appeal, the religious leaders speak of the sufferings of the people of the Caucasus, forced to live in chaos and terror. “Terrorists, extremists and radical politicians says the appeal are trying to use ethnic and religious differences to justify aims that are inimical to any genuine religion. Persons of different nationality and religion are represented with the image of enemy”. “Such representations declare the religious leaders promote a totalitarian and nationalistic ideology and are only to the benefit of those who are trying to banish religion from the life of society and lead religion against it”. To “put an end to the conflicts in the Caucasus, the religious leaders ask that ethnic minorities be involved in public life, and that everyone be guaranteed the right to freedom of faith and of religion and the opportunity to develop their own culture and language”.
