Today Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary Chaldean bishop of the Iraqi capital, firmly condemned the photographs of the Iraqi prisoners tortured by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad. In a declaration issued to SIR agency, the bishop stated that “those bloodcurdling pictures cover those who took them and the executors of tortures and humiliation with shame. They are people with no humanity and no conscience. Not even animals would do those things”. According to Msgr. Warduni, these photos, shown in Australia by SBS TV, “might also cause reactions against the local Christian communities”. After the recent attacks on the Christian places of worship, “these pictures may create a serious danger. In fact, the risk is that the executors of those infamous gestures may be considered Christians. There are also those who may think that all Christians are like that. But those who make those gestures are not Christians. They are just people with no conscience, causing disasters for mankind, and generating division among the peoples. What happened at Abu Ghraib covers all men with shame, be them Christians, Hebrews or Muslims. Before such wicked deeds there are no distinctions”. “We firmly condemn those picture he concluded; they are against the whole mankind. They are blasphemy against man and his dignity of son of God”.
