Muslim Conference in Africa Calls for Protection of Religious Minorities

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Aida Alami

Yazidis from Sinjar Province in Iraq after their arrival on the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey in November. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

MOROCCO---At a recent conference held by Muslim scholars to confront violence in the Islamic world, a representative of the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria said his people desperately needed protection from the Islamic State. The gathering here of about 300 muftis, theologians and scholars last month responded far more broadly by issuing the Marrakesh Declaration, which calls for Muslim countries to tolerate and protect religious minorities living within their borders — among them Christians, Jews, Hindus and Bahais as well as Yazidis and Sabians. [link]