In an unusually blunt statement, the President of Italy’s Conference of Catholic Bishops (CEI) has called on Muslims to completely disassociate themselves from the Islamic State by categorically condemning it.
In an interview Sunday, the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco (pictured), declared that the Muslim world must “loudly disassociate itself” from ISIS and categorically condemn its employment of terrorism.
After Friday’s horrific jihadist attacks in Paris that resulted in some 130 deaths, the cardinal said that “the whole world” must isolate the terrorists by cutting off all political and economic ties.
Bagnasco also said that due to the interethnic composition of Europe’s population the political authorities have an “even more delicate and serious task to ensure law and order” in their respective countries and throughout Europe.
The cardinal said that the Islamic world is very pluralistic and lacks a single authority. “Everyone can read and interpret these facts very differently while appealing to the same religion and the same culture,” he said.
“I am sure that not the whole Muslim world approves of these acts of brutality, but dissenters seem to lack the strength to explicit condemn them and distance themselves from them,” he said.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome
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