(
Baghdad) Sheikh Alaa al-Moussawi, who is in charge of the
Shia Waqf, the religious body which maintains all of the Shia holy sites, including mosques, Huseiniyas and schools, has sparked anger and concerns when he declared Christians to be "infidels and polytheists" and stressed the need for a "jihad" against them at a speech he gave in southern Iraq. He finished off his diatribe by stating that Iraqi Christians must either convert to Shia Islam, pay a religious tax known as a jizya or be killed.
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| Convert or die |
In reply, 180 Christian families have filed a lawsuit on the grounds that he is “instigating incitement against Christians and disturbing the religious plurality of Iraq”. In reply, he has responded by sending a delegation to the Babylonian Christian Movement to mediate the lawsuit and the allegations that his comments have mirrored IS rhetoric.
