Reconciliation, Healing, and Peaceful Coexistence in Iraq

Religions for Peace expresses delight at His Holiness Pope Francis’s visit as a message of peace and commits to continuing its work for interfaith dialogue, multifaith action, peace and reconciliation.

Religions for Peace has long worked for multi-religious action and interreligious reconciliation in Iraq. Most recently, religious leaders came together to welcome the momentous step taken by the representatives of the Christian, Kakai, Shia, Sunni, and Yazidi communities in Iraq through the adoption of an Inter-Faith Statement on the Victims and Survivors of ISIL in March 2020. This was convened as part of a virtual conference hosted jointly by the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for the Crimes committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) and Religions for Peace.

We are pleased to stand with the Pact of Erbil, an important historical site of religious diversity, long devastated by conflict. This important statement rejects “[using] the name of God or the name of any religion to justify wars, use of violence or political and economic domination.”