Dar Al Ifta condemns attack on Saint Philip's Catholic Church in Nigeria

CAIRO– 7 August 2017: Dar Al Ifta's Fatwa Monitoring Observatory condemned Monday the violent attack on Saint Philip's Catholic Church in Anambra state in southeast Nigeria that took place on Sunday.

Twelve people were killed and others wounded in the attack when unknown gunmen shot worshipers inside the church during the Sunday mass when the number of crowds exceeded 100 people, the observatory stated.

The observatory slammed such brutal crimes affirming that all religious teachings ban aggression on churches and places of worship.

Islam bans aggression on churches by any means and Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) told us that damaging or blowing up churches and killing worshipers are considered aggression on God and the Prophet, statement said.

The statement pointed out that only extremists with no humanity or religious values would conduct such criminal attacks against civilians and safe worshipers.

The statement added that targeting innocent civilians reveals the brutal nature of extremists who avoid to clash directly with the state's security forces that would mostly end up with the extremists’ defeat.