Chaldean Patriarch calls for a 'secular and civil' Iraqi state (AsiaNews)

“It is not true that the secular system is opposed to religion; on the contrary, the civil system does not deprive people of the right to practice their faith according to personal conviction and, at the same time, it does not oblige them to profess a religion,” said Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako. Islam is Iraq’s official religion, and 98% of Iraqis are Muslims.