URGENT NEED TO PROTECT RELIGIOUS SITES WORLDWIDE: This past week Rabbi Arthur Schneier traveled to the Vatican to meet with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the urgent need to protect religious sites around the world. Many churches, synagogues, mosques and holy sites have been destroyed or damaged by conflict, terrorism, and wanton acts of hatred and bias.
In May 2001 Rabbi Schneier initiated the interfaith appeal to the United Nations for the worldwide protection of holy sites, Resolution 55/254–the Protection of Religious Sites, unanimously adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. Given the current destruction of Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Christian religious sites, he met recently with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and formally requested that he appoint a Special Representative with the authority to marshal the resources and moral weight of the international community to prevent the desecration of holy sites and houses of worship of all faiths around the world.