Illustrative photo: An Islamic State jihadi reads the sentence of crucifixion in front of a crowd. Iraqi Shiite Sheikh Alaa al-Moussawi has been accused of using ISIS rhetoric against Iraq’s Christians. (Photo: video screenshot)
The head of the Shiite religious institutions in Iraq told Christians to convert or die. Sheikh Alaa al-Moussawi, who is in charge of the Shiite Waqf (the body that oversees and maintains all Shia holy sites, mosques and other places of prayer and schools), called Christians “infidels and polytheists” and said “jihad” must be carried out against them.
Responding to incendiary remarks, 180 Iraqi Christians filed a lawsuit against the sheikh for “instigating incitement against Christians and disturbing the religious plurality of Iraq,” according to an Iraqi judicial source sited by The New Arab website.
In response, Al-Moussawi sent a delegation from the Waqf to the Babylonian Christian Movement to mediate the lawsuit which also accuses him of using ISIS rhetoric against the Christians.
