” “"We are not facing a civil war: it would be the end of Iraq, and nobody wants that. The Iraqis are aware they have been exploited by Saddam Hussein. In particular, his regime killed very many Shihites and those people are now taking revenge for the wicked actions and the injustices they endured unti a few years ago. Another goal of the Shihite conflict is to obtain more government posts. By force”. This is the belief of mgr. Louis Sako, bishop of Kirkurk, where in the last few days two churches were assaulted and an altar boy and more Christians were killed. In an interview with SIR, he says: "We have to support our congregation, to give them all the help we can. I try to encourage them not to give up. If someone is trying to drive us out of the country, we will show them that we are not afraid, that we are strong and we are deeply attached to our country. These slaughters have nothing to do with religion. Peaceful cohabitation does exist". Mgr. Sako also revealed he visited "the Islamic leaders to whom I expressed my sympathy for the destruction of the Samarra mosque. I repeated once again that we Christians reject the attacks against the Islam people, because we consider abominable any crime committed against any place of worship. In our community, we are raising money to rebuild the mosque”.” “
