LAPD Chief, Interfaith Leaders Call For Peace, Unity In Wake Of Kenya Attack
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department joined a coalition of city officials and interfaith community leaders Friday to call for peace in response to the violence that has been raging in the Middle East and elsewhere overseas.
KNX 1070's Margaret Carrero reports LAPD Chief Charlie Beck stood in solidarity with the coalition to reject all forms of bias, intolerance or violence directed at any of the city's multi-religious communities.
LAPD Chief, Interfaith Leaders Call For Peace, Unity
Beck joined with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, City Attorney Mike Feuer and Councilmember Tom Labonge to reaffirm religious freedoms and respect along all sectarian lines.
"We are extremely concerned that incidents that occur across the globe will impact us," Beck said.
In recent weeks, sectarian violence has struck Syria, Egypt and, most recently, Kenya, where an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall by an Islamic extremist left at least 72 people dead and dozens more missing.
Rabbi Morli Feinstein of University Synagogue was among those representing over a dozen different faith groups, including the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Catholic Diocese, Muslim Public Affairs, Islamic Center of Southern California, Simon Wiesenthal Center, LA Buddhist Union, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California, and the Sikh American Legal Defense.
Feinstein extended a hand of unity following a string of attacks by terrorist militant groups that have targeted minority Christian, Kurd, and Shiite communities in different parts of the world.
"We are open to all other thoughts and other opinions, and we do so under the tent of peace," Feinstein said.
