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Arab Spring, IS aimed at demonizing Islam - Patriarch Kirill

Moscow, December 12, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia thinks that extremist paramilitary groups such as the Islamic State make Muslims themselves suffer.

"I cannot stop thinking that the Arab Spring and the emergence of radical Islamic paramilitary forces and their public executions of people - all this is aimed at demonizing Islam in the eyes of global public opinion," the patriarch said at a meeting with the President of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs Mehmet Gormez in Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate said on its website on Friday.

He expressed concern over Christianophobia currently spreading across the Middle East where "churches are being demolished, and Christians are being either killed or forced to convert into Islam, or sold into slavery, or forced to pay some special tax."

The problem of Christianophobia is also relevant for Western countries, "where have seen numerous examples of people being discriminated just because they publicly display their Christian piety."

He mentioned his 2011 meeting with Gormez, following which a working group was set up to maintain dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs.

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