STATEMENT BY LEEDS FAITHS FORUM IN RESPONSE TO PARIS ATTACKS
We at Leeds Faiths Forum (which represents 9 Faiths in Leeds), along with Concord Interfaith Fellowship, stand alongside the people of Paris at this time and offer our deepest sympathy to them, especially those injured and bereaved through the extremist attacks on Friday.
We are appalled at Friday’s extremist attacks in Paris on innocent people. In their cruelty, undiscriminating hate and resort to violence rather than dialogue, we see these attacks as completely contradicting the fundamental humane and moral values that are taught by all faiths, including Islam.
We particularly stand in solidarity with the Muslim community, the vast majority of whom wish to work for peace and to live by the values of truth, compassion, mercy and obedience to God, and who have stated publicly their revulsion at Friday’s atrocity. As they face increased vulnerability and wrestle with these stresses in their community, we see them as our brothers and sisters and are deeply distressed on their behalf.
We perceive ISIS to be seeking their ends by creating a climate of fear and fostering division in our society. They are fighting a subversive battle within our minds and in our community in an attempt to create conditions for their distorted version of Islam to flourish. We believe that the wider community must not let itself become fertile ground for seeds of division and fear to grow. This is what gives urgency to the dialogue and cooperation between faiths that so many of us are engaged in.
Revd Canon Charles Dobbin MBE, Chair, Leeds Faiths Forum (07753359766)
Dr Simon Phillips, Chair of Concord Interfaith Fellowship
16.11.15