OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, April 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Orthodox Church in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) called on all U.S. and British Christian soldiers invading Iraq to revolt against their commanders and disobey orders.

Lecturing a crowd of Christians and clergymen in the Palestinian city of Haifa Monday, March 31, the Orthodox Church Spokesman Archimandrite Attallah Hanna said it was incumbent on Anglo-American soldiers in Iraq to “defy the orders of their commanders, refrain from striking Iraqi buildings, lay down their weapons and go home,” reported Al-Quds Press news agency Tuesday, April 1.

“What they are doing now is not only heinous but an unethical act that has nothing to do with all human or spiritual values,” reverend Attallah ruled.

Commenting on the images of invading soldiers performing prayers in the battlefield, Hanna said: “God never accepts prayers from war criminals…God never accepts the prayer of someone whose hands are stained with blood.

“They must repent, regret their sins, abandon their weapons and leave Iraq once and for all.”

“Those who kill and do injustice to the Iraqi people are not Christians,” underlined the prominent clergyman.

“I say it publicly: the invading troops in Iraq and those who sent them are not Christians and have nothing to do with Christianity.

“Consequently, I urge Arab media to be very careful and abstain from publishing or airing any statements that might give the impression that this war is holy,” he stressed.

Archimandrite Hanna further charged that the U.S.-led war “is a Satanic and colonial one.”

He warned the invaders that God would severely punish the United States, Britain and their allies for this unjust war and their crimes against humanity.

Crime Against God

On U.S. President George Bush’s claims that God supports this war, Hanna hit back that this war is a “crime against God and His holy scriptures.”

“(The holy word) God cannot be used to paper over the unethical and inhuman acts,” he underlined.

Father Hanna also slammed calls by U.S. Senators and Congressmen to perform daylong prayers for God to protect the U.S. and its president.

“The Senators and the Congressmen should better take the decision of pulling the barbaric and invading troops from the Iraqi territories,” he countered.

“No matter how long they pray, God will rebuff their prayers, because they are supporting mass killing and terrorism, particularly in Palestine and Iraq.

“One should first purify himself/herself from arrogance and haughtiness to make God accept his prayers,” said the clergyman.

On the “Christian Duty” book distributed among the U.S. invading soldiers, Archimandrite Hanna said the Christian duty was to “withdraw from Iraq.

“What they are doing right now is against Christianity in the broad sense of the word.”