Report: Qabbani Seeking to Hold Muslim-Christian Summit

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani is making contacts to hold a Muslim-Christian spiritual summit in the aftermath of attacks on Christians in the region, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said that the summit could be held at the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki end of this week to contain the repercussions of attacks on Christians in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria.

A suicide bombing early on New Year's Day at a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in which 21 people were killed and 79 were wounded has not yet been claimed, although Cairo has indirectly implicated al-Qaida.

In claiming an October attack on a church in Baghdad in which 46 Christians were killed, al-Qaida affiliate the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) also threatened the Coptic church, accusing it of holding against their will two priests' wives they say had converted to Islam.

Unidentified arsonists also burnt a church in a northern Nigerian city where Islamists torched two churches and killed six worshippers on Christmas Eve last month, police said Monday