Saad Salloum, general coordinator of MCMD and director of the National Center for Combating Hate Speeches, and Father Muyassar Al-Mukhlissi, Bishop of Mar Gorges Chaldean Church and one of the founders of the National Center for Combating Hate Speeches, launched a call to attract the attention to the Christian religious heritage which is being neglected.
In a visit to Kokhi Church, which is considered the oldest historical church in Iraq and Middle East, the conditions of the historical sites of the Christian religious heritage were checked. This call came to pay attention to this eastern spiritual heritage. In this context, Saad Salloum asserts “the necessity to attract the attention of the Iraqi government to the symbolic significance of this place to put at the top of its priorities due its the grand importance for more than two billion Christians worldwide. Father Muyassar Al-Mukhlissi, emphasized the importance of arranging regular future visit for such places, and putting these visits within a permanent program to be an evidence of achieving security and stability, and a positive motivation for religious minorities to preserve their own memory and stick to their decisive existence in this country.
It is worth stating that Kokhi Church dates back to the first century and it has been the center of Eastern Church for several centuries, and was the starting point of Christianity in the Asia. It was discovered by a German expedition in 1929. The visit made to this Church is the first after about 20 years.
