Atallah Hanna, the Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said, “Hate speech and incitement to violence are an unacceptable phenomenon. It is absolutely impermissible for any person to be coerced and incited because of his religious affiliation, whether he is Christian, Muslim, Jew or any other religion.”
Hanna added in an interview with a French radio, “We reject hate speech, regardless of its source, because it is a discourse that contradicts our human, moral and spiritual values. God did not distinguish between human beings. We are all created the same way and we are all children of Adam, and the sons of the same family must deal with each other with love and brotherhood, even if they have multiple religious, ethnic or cultural affiliations. “
“Man was created to be an actor of good and a servant of noble human and moral spiritual values, not to be evil, murderous, and an inciter of hatred, extremism and violence.”
The Archbishop pointed out that facing these phenomena requires initiatives by the wise men, scholars and clerics of all religions in order to work to perpetuate a culture full of love, brotherhood and humanity.
