Inviting His Beatitude Patriarch Sakko to visit the highest religious authority in al-Najaf al-Ashraf, Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim calls for starting an Islamic-Christian dialogue workshop on the Iraq level

Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), has called for starting an Islamic-Christian dialogue workshop on the Iraq level, stressing the necessity of looking after the Christian component in Iraq, embracing it and encouraging Iraqi Christians who immigrated to return home, pointing out that the Christians in Iraq are not measured by their number; rather, they are a quantum addition in the Iraqi rose bouquet.
This came up when His Eminence met His Beatitude, the Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans in Iraq and the world, Mar Louis Rafael I Sakko, at the Baghdad office of His Eminence Ammar al-Hakim on Tuesday, March 12, 2013. Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim congratulated His Beatitude on his appointment as the Patriarch of the Chaldeans in Iraq and the world, wishing him success in his mission. His Eminence praised in his speech His Beatitude for his appointment in his new mission and for inviting Iraqi Christian immigrants to return home, regarding this as a valuable statement that indicates an open personality believing in dialogue and advocating love and peace.
The head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq called on His Beatitude Patriarch Sakko to visit al-Najaf al-Ashraf and meet the religious authorities there, regarding such meetings as contributing to heart comforting, stressing that Iraq's strength lies in its diversity; therefore, the Christian component has to stay in Iraq and members of this component must enjoy a prosperous living. He explained that terrorism does not target a group rather than another; instead, it targets everyone, expressing his appreciation of the recent trend of the Vatican towards the Christians of the east, explaining that there are many commonalities among religious in Iraq, stressing that the defect in the cycle of national harmony among the Iraqi components causes damages in the other cycles on the security and political levels.
On his part, His Beatitude Patriarch Sakko regarded the statement of "Congratulations to the Peace Makers", which Jesus Christ (peace with him) made, applies exactly to Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim. He expressed his admiration of al-Hakim's speech, presentations and repeated calls in the cultural forum for dialogue and for bringing viewpoints closer to each other, emphasizing that the Christians in Iraq are proud of belonging to their homeland, Iraq, and that they play a great role in building its civilization.