UGCC head: We have to fight not against Islam but for strong Christianity

“We have to fight not against Islam but for strong Christianity,” said the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), in an interview with RISU, stressing that the so-called Islamic threat against Christianity, especially in Ukraine, “is not as much an external question as it is an internal one.”

 “Of course this issue can be viewed from different positions: political, social or international terrorism (how often they want to use the issue of Islam, in my opinion, is very wrong here). But when we talk about the church’s view on this issue, then I believe we need to be ourselves and then everything will fall into place. Then we won’t fear our neighbors who are of different faiths,” said the primate.

“If we are bad Christians then a mosque would threaten us even outside Ukraine. If we are strong Christians then we understand who we are and we live our faith not in theory but in practice. This mosque won’t scare us even if it will be built across the street from our church. We have to fight not against Islam but for strong Christianity,” said Patriarch Sviatoslav.

We remind that Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar) once said that he would not be against a mosque being built in the park across from St. George’s Cathedral. At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church was talking about the threat of Islam in the world.