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Williams said last week that launching a war would leave the West open to the criticisms that it was behaving like a colonial power
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LONDON,
November 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Church of
England decided Monday evening, November 11, that "British and
American plans to attack Iraq if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
breaches the
latest United Nations resolution could be justified even
without the further backing of the U.N."
The
British daily newspaper, the Telegraph, described the move as
an "unexpected rebuff to a number of senior bishops" and
added that a move to insist that only the United Nations could permit
war was rejected by the Church's General Synod by 141 to 110 votes.
Despite
saying that unilateral military action risked the credibility of the
U.N., some speakers at the Synod argued that "the Church would
display a lack of understanding of international politics if it tried
to tie the hands of Western governments," reported the Telegraph.
The
move seems to be a 180 degree change on the policies of the church,
only a week after the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan
Williams, said that a pre-emptive strike on Iraq could "rapidly
and uncontrollably spiral down into chaos."
In
an article which Williams sent to the Telegraph November 5, he
said that to ignore the fears of people in the area would leave the
West open to the criticism that it was behaving like a colonial power.
U.K.
officials have been irritated at the "anti-war rhetoric" of
the Church of England, the paper said.
Elsewhere
in the world, Christian leaders have been outright opposed to a strike
against Iraq.
Earlier
in November, patriarchs of the eastern Catholic churches came out
against a war on Iraq. "Nothing justifies a war against Iraq,
whatever the pretexts and reasons invoked," said the heads of the
Maronite, Melchite, Coptic, Chaldean, Latin, Syriac and Armenian
churches after a five-day conclave at Raboueh, near Beirut.
"There
can be no just war because men have the choice: negotiating and
arriving at peaceful solutions or unleashing wholesale
destruction," they said in a statement.
On
September 5, Britain's Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor
said a war against Iraq could set the Arab world against the West, and
undermine efforts to secure peace between the Israelis and the
Palestinians.
On
September 16, the head of Italy's Catholic bishops, Cardinal Camillo
Ruini, said a war led by the United States against Iraq would have
"unacceptable" human consequences and would destabilize the
Middle East.
On
September 12, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy
II, said he was totally opposed to any attack by the U.S. on Iraq,
warning of a "bloodbath" if war went ahead.
On
September 18, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed strong
opposition to unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq in a letter
to U.S. President George W. Bush.
The
London Times also reported that George Carey, the since retired
archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the world's
Anglicans, had raised his concerns about Iraq in a private letter to
British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In
September, the World Council of Churches expressed "concern and
alarm" over U.S. threats to strike Iraq in the name of
overthrowing the present Iraqi government, and called on the United
States to cease military threats against Baghdad.
The
Geneva-based WCC also urged U.S. allies "to resist pressures to
join in pre-emptive military strikes against a sovereign state under
the pretext of the 'war on terrorism'."
According
to the website of the diocese of Ely, the General
Synod is unique.
"It
is the only group of people to whom Parliament has given power to pass
Measures which become English law.
"In
1919, the Church Assembly, which became the General Synod in 1970, was
given the power to prepare legislation about any matter to do with the
Church of England. If Parliament accepts such Measures, they become
part of the law of the land," the site said.
