Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Syria's Grand Mufti First Speaker at EU's 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue Series

Opening his address, the Grand Mufti stressed that "really there are no separate cultures, there is but one single culture" in the world, namely "the culture of mankind". Indeed, he said, "we, in our region, do not believe in a conflict between cultures".

"We do not believe, in our region, in the multiplicity of religions", said the Grand Mufti. "Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohamed came with one single religion". Therefore "there is no holy war, because a war can never be holy: it is peace that is holy." Later he said it was wrong to use religion to justify killing.

Closing his speech, Dr Hassoun praised Europe today as embodying a "miracle" in overcoming two world wars and bringing down the Berlin wall without bloodshed. Seeing the European Parliament as a model, he called on the EP "to help us build a universal parliament". And since Damascus is this year the Cultural Capital of the Arab World, he asked the EP, as a practical gesture, to agree to hold "a meeting for cultures" in Damascus "to say that the world is at one".

Entire Article

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this important article; it comes as close to what the West wants to hear as anything I've read. Too bad people can't see this manipulation for what it is.
Setterman