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Living together: against extremism

21 August 2014

Living together: against extremism

Dozens of social, religious and political organisations have joined hands to combat the rise of the ISIS terror campaign. The SP supports this initiative, which is detailed in the manifesto reproduced below.

Living together: against extremism

Save minorities in Iraq and Syria, resist the ISIS terror campaign

You can never get used to these pictures. Beheadings in the street, crucifixions, and burning churches and mosques. Women and children fleeing. Driven away. Without food and without shelter. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terror campaign knows no borders. Religious and ethnic minorities are being hunted down and massacred.

This makes us furious.

More than 200,000 Yezidis have fled before the violence. Kurdish and Christian women, old people and children are dying from hunger and thirst. Pursued by extremists they are seeking a safe refuge and counting on the support of the world community.

The UN is now speaking in terms of a threatening genocide. For ISIS, after all, only those who believe in the most extreme form of Sunni Islam are worthy. All who think differently, whether Shi’ites, Jews, Christians, Yezidis, Turkmen, Arameans, Sunnis or non-believers, are unacceptable to them. They thus pose a threat not only to all of the peoples and religions of the Middle East, but also to Europe.

This extremism must be fought with force. By strengthening solidarity and mutual sympathy between population groups and not by heightening discord amongst people, as the extreme right does. You don’t fight hatred with hatred.

We declare our solidarity with the oppressed peoples in Iraq and Syria and ask our government to stop this threatened genocide. We want the Dutch government to offer aid in every possible fashion and to urge Europe, the Arab countries and Turkey to speak out against this form of barbarism.

Save minorities in Iraq and Syrian and combat the Islamic State’s terror campaign by all peaceful means.


The call was signed by numerous nationally- or ethnically-based solidarity organisations in the Netherlands including those representing Moroccans, Kurds, Turks, Alevitish people, Aramean people, Yezidis and Syrians; by political parties the SP and Green Left, trade unions, social organisations working with refugees, anti-racist groups, and religious groups representing Christians and Muslims.

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