CAIRO, April 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Christians in Egypt and across the Arab world will not celebrate Easter this and next week to show their heartfelt solidarity and sympathy with the Iraqi people, a spokesman for the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) said Saturday, April 19.

"In the name of the Egyptian church and other Eastern and Arab churches; and in solidarity with the current distress of Arabs after the U.S. occupation of Iraq; and in view of the deplorable conditions of the Iraqi people, churches will not celebrate this Easter," MECC Secretary General Rev. Dr. Riad Jarjour said in a statement carried by the Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA).

"How can we celebrate Easter while the Iraqi people are still burying their dead and binding up their wounds due to the war waged by the western coalition?" Jarjour asked.

"They (Iraqis), in addition, have every right to worry for their future amid the widespread anarchy caused by this unfair war."

"And how can we enjoy ourselves while the Israeli military go non-stop in killing the Palestinian people at the time the world attention is riveted on the war on Iraq," he continued.

"Heartbroken, disappointed and desperate as we are, we drive our strength from God. We pray that He would support the down-trodden and render their weakness into strength," averred the MECC spokesman.

The statement further asserted that the MECC will "stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people, help them rebuild their war-battered country and denounce those who did injustice to them, no matter who they are."

This decision was taken to express the refusal of the Palestinian Christians of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

In a special interview with IslamOnline.net on March 31, Spokesman for the Orthodox Church in the Holy Land Archimandrite Attallah Hanna described both Bush and Blair as excommunicates, because they had turned a deaf ear to several calls by the Orthodox Church and other churches to spare the lives of innocent Iraqis and prevent the flare-up of war.

Coming under diatribe from the four corners of the world, wartime Bush was censured Tuesday, March 18, by the Vatican for his bellicose policy and defiance of the international legitimacy.

In a terse statement, the Holy See said Bush assumed a "grave responsibility before God" in deciding that diplomacy to avoid conflict with Iraq had been exhausted.