Israel Matzav

Go tell it to Assad: Syrian Mufti calls for protecting Jews

There's a lot of talk around the blogosphere about a statement made by Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmed Hassoun to a group of American academics on Tuesday.

"If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a heretic," Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, the Mufti of Syria, was quoted as telling a delegation of American academics visiting Damascus.

Hassoun, the leader of Syria's majority Sunni Muslim community, also told the delegates that Islam was a religion of peace, adding: "If Mohammed had commanded us to kill people, I would have told him he was not a prophet."

Religious wars were the result of politics infiltrating systems of faith, he said, asking:

"Was Moses of Middle Eastern or European descent? Was Jesus a Protestant or a Catholic? Was Mohammed Shi'ite or Sunni?"

According to the Mufti, the conflict between Israel and its Arabs neighbors has nothing to do with an Islamic war against Judaism.

"Before you got American citizenship, and I got Syrian citizenship, we were all brothers under the dome of God," he said.

Jews had once lived in Syria peacefully and with fair treatment, he added, explaining that his own grandfather had a Jewish partner.

Hassoun was the Grand Mufti of Aleppo and was made the Grand Mufti of Syria by Bashar al-Assad in late 2005, nearly two years after his predecessor's death. He is actually quite well known as a supporter of religious tolerance.

In the West, A Mufti, a Christian and a Rabbi is often how a good interfaith joke begins. But I live inside this reality. I am a rabbi and my Syrian colleague, Hind Kabawat, is a Christian Arab. We have worked for four years with the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, in both Damascus and Aleppo. [Note: this has been moved down.] The three of us, along with many others of courage, have put on public events in Syria for four years that no one thought possible. No one believed Protestant, Catholic, Sunni, Shiâa, and Jewish clerics would sit together at a table, in front of cameras, working out the foundations of a tolerant civil society and making commitments to peace in the heart of Syria.... We love the Mufti because he inspires us with hope, reminding us by his words and deeds that peace is possible. Sheikh Hassoun is beloved by thousands in Syria because he works tirelessly to provide for poor people. He also insists upon apologies and forgiveness between civilizations and among Muslims. The Mufti champions those who are in a vulnerable position in the Middle East, from women to Ismailis, which angers the extremists. He told us on this trip that he increasingly embraces the secular state as the proper vehicle in which decent religion should operate, a point he also explicitly made before the European Parliament last month.

I have no real indication of where Hassoun stands on Israel. Usually, people with his political views believe Israel should just give the 'Palestinians' whatever they want. I did find this story which has him expressing 'cautious optimism' about President Obama's Cairo speech.

In any event, given Hassoun's past history, his comments are not all that surprising.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:02 PM