“There is no war that is holy and good in itself” stressed Williams

LONDON, February 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush against using religious language in their drive to wage war on Iraq, stressing such a military aggression cannot be “holy and good”.

"There is no war that is holy and good in itself and to bring the heavy artillery of a religious kind, to say that is the only way of resisting evil, is something that has to be watched out for," the archbishop told his first press conference on Friday, February 21, in reference to Bush’s use of the Christian imagery to justify war on Baghdad.

Both President Bush with his "axis of evil" sound bites and the prime minister in his recent campaign to provide a moral justification for the conflict have become increasingly messianic in tone as they strive to persuade skeptical electorates, The Guardian quoted Williams as saying.

Intensifying his anti-war rhetoric, the Archbishop said that Western leaders had to guard against talk of "crusades" against Muslims or arguing that use of force was the only method of defeating evil.

Williams, who leads a church largely united in its opposition to war in a wider religious community sharing similar views, said he was in regular contact with Blair but declined to give details of discussions between them.

The archbishop who issued this week a joint statement with Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor doubting the moral basis for a war insisted that other alternatives to peace have to be explored before military intervention.

He refused even to commit himself to supporting a war even with a second U.N Security Council resolution.

The intervention by the country's two senior churchmen further undermined London’s efforts to persuade the country of the legitimacy of war on Iraq, he said.

"I think Christians generally would hold that unless other means of resolution had been exhausted, it would be hard to justify any pre-emptive [military] action. It does not look as if we have exhausted all the possibilities yet," averred Canterbury Archbishop.

He had earlier said in his Christmas message that war on Iraq must be seen as inevitable, joining forces with other British religious leaders in their concerns at U.S. push for war against Iraq.

He believes that all efforts to avoid conflict had yet to be exhausted, wondering whether a sustained United Nations presence in Iraq could prove effective.

Williams is to be enthroned as 104th archbishop at Canterbury Cathedral next Thursday as the final stage of his appointment which began last July with the announcement that he had been chosen to succeed George Carey.

Also, the World Council of Churches (WCC), which groups Christian and Orthodox churches worldwide branded on Friday as immoral and unwise looming U.S.-British war on Iraq and praised U.S. and British churches for standing up to politicians in their countries.