Japan Press Weekly

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2017 April 12 - 18 [WORLD]

Religious persons in rally: Don’t torment Syrians!

“Please, do not torment Syrian innocents anymore! Bring peace to Syria! The world needs no more air strikes nor missile attacks,” were the messages shouted by a network of peace-oriented religious individuals and citizens in Japan who organized an urgent rally on April 11 in the Diet building.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira and Social Democratic Party member of the House of Councilors Fukushima Mizuho also took part in this event.

Followers and leaders of Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam one after another spoke in anger against the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, U.S. President Trump’s strike on Syria, and his order to send an aircraft carrier toward North Korea.

Kobashi Koichi, an executive of the National Christian Council in Japan, said, “The tension in Northeast Asia is also extremely serious. We cannot overlook the military threat posed by the increase in U.S. military presence there ready to use any pretext to initiate military action.”

Qureshi Haroon, the secretary general of the Japan Islamic Trust at Masjid Otsuka, criticized the U.S. missile attack in Syria and offered prayers for peace in Arabic.

JCP Kasai said, “The use of chemical weapons is absolutely unacceptable,” and criticized the U.S. Trump administration for unilaterally launching an attack on Syria in violation of the UN Charter and international law before finding out the facts. Kasai posed a question, “Will we keep allowing the Abe government to support whatever the U.S. does based on the ‘Japan-U.S. alliance First’ policy?”

Past related articles:
> JCP Koike: Tillerson’s reference to US Syria strike as a message to North Korea is dangerous [April 11, 2017]
> US strike on Syria may destabilize Middle East: Foreign affairs expert [April 9, 2017]
> Shii comments on US military attack on Syria [April 8, 2017]
> Only 4hrs after Trump’s Syria strike order, Abe expresses ‘support’ [April 8, 2017]