People of all faiths need peace: Turkish religious head

By Zehra Aydin

ANKARA

Turkey’s senior religious figure on Friday said that not only Muslims but the faithful of all religions need peace, as tension is high in Palestine over the status of Jerusalem.

Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, told Azerbaijan’s state television AZ TV that all humanity should strive to make the world more liveable.

Erbas said that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev had declared 2017 the Year of Islamic Solidarity.

“Meetings were held in various countries during 2017,” he said. “A meeting was held in Istanbul in the middle of October.”

During these meetings, steps to promote global peace were discussed, Erbas said.

Anyone persecuted anywhere in the world should be rescued regardless of their beliefs, he added.

On the ongoing tension in Palestine, Erbas said: “If all human beings act together, I hope that we will stop this suffering.”

Regardless of whether people are Muslims, Christians, or Jews, we should stop persecution in the name of humanity, he added.

Earlier today, Erbas described the UN vote rejecting the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital as a “slap” from the rest of the world.

The vote saw 128 countries approve the resolution that the U.S. decision was “null and void”. Nine countries voted against it.

Jerusalem remains at the core of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem -- now occupied by Israel -- might serve as the capital of a future Palestinian state.