the agenda of dialogue between the cultures more important than ever bef

07May2001 SYRIA: For First Time, a Pope Sets Foot in a Mosque - In Syria,
Pontiff Calls for 'Forgiveness'. 
By Howard Schneider.
DAMASCUS, Syria, May 6 - John Paul II, respectfully removing his shoes,
today became the first pope to enter a mosque when he toured a
1,300-year-old Islamic house of worship and urged joint forgiveness by
Christians and Muslims, whose faiths have warred for centuries over
territory and spiritual primacy.
The pope's visit to the Umayyad mosque served as a recognition that the two
religions share some ideas and prophets, even as they differ on theological
issues such as the divinity of Christ and the nature of the Koran.

John Paul, 80, and Syria's top Muslim cleric, Mufti Ahmed Kuftaro, who is in
his late eighties, both used canes as they entered the mosque in Damascus's
walled Old City. The pope stopped for a minute of contemplation before a
tomb reputedly housing the head of John the Baptist. In deference to Muslim
sensitivities, he said no formal prayer inside the worship area.
The pope shook hands with Kuftaro in the building's courtyard, which is
ringed by elaborate mosaics depicting heaven and has a minaret where some
Muslims believe Jesus will make his second coming.

"For all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another, we
need to seek forgiveness," the pope said before dozens of Syrian Christian
and Islamic leaders and scholars.
No pope had ever stepped into a mosque. During a trip to Jerusalem last
year, John Paul did not enter the al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest Islamic
shrine, when he visited the Noble Sanctuary.

The Umayyad mosque was built in 705 on a site that was once used for pagan
sacrifices in honor of the Roman god Jupiter; it later became a Christian
basilica. At the peak of the Umayyad caliph's rule from Damascus, it was
converted to a mosque, with relics of John the Baptist, known to Muslims as
the prophet Yahya, given a central place. A connected courtyard also
contains the tomb of Saladin, the Muslim warrior who reconquered Jerusalem
from Catholic crusaders.

"It is my ardent hope that Muslim and Christian religious leaders and
teachers will present our two great religious communities as communities in
respectful dialogue, never more as communities in conflict," the pope said.
"It is crucial for the young to be taught the ways of respect and
understanding, so that they will not be led to misuse religion itself to
promote or justify hatred and violence."

The mosque visit continued the theme of interfaith tolerance the pope struck
in Athens on Friday when he asked forgiveness from Eastern Orthodox churches
for the schism that split Christianity nearly 1,000 years ago. John Paul is
on a six-day, three-country tour that traces the footsteps of the apostle
Paul, who converted to Christianity on the road to Damascus.
But the pope has received repeated reminders since arriving in Syria of the
tensions still dividing the Middle East. In his speech welcoming the pope
Saturday, Syrian President Bashar Assad urged him to support Palestinians in
the uprising against Israel and made comments that indicted all Jews for
such things as the betrayal of Christ. Vatican officials today reiterated
the Roman Catholic Church's rejection of anti-Semitism, and the president of
Israel called Assad a racist. Today, as the pope held a three-hour Mass
before 40,000 mostly Orthodox observers, fresh fighting erupted in Israel,
and Syrian television ran footage showing dead Palestinians.
In their remarks at the mosque, Kuftaro and other Syrian officials said that
Zionists were trying to keep Christians and Muslims apart. Kuftaro pleaded
for "the Catholic Church all over the world, with his holiness the pope at
its head, and the Christian governments of the West to stand in support of
justice and put pressure on Israel by every means to curb its atrocious
aggression.... This is the least that Christianity, as a proof of its
allegiance to Jesus Christ, can offer the world."

Despite the controversy surrounding the pope's first visit to Syria, the
mood in the country has been jubilant. Although Syria has been criticized
for its links with Palestinian radicalism and sponsorship of such terrorist
groups as Hezbollah, it also supports a variety of religious communities,
including about 200 Jews, 2 million Christians and several Islamic sects.
The faiths are interwoven in sometimes improbable ways. In the hills of
Ma'aloula, outside Damascus, Muslims bring their sick to the cliff-side tomb
of Saint Takla, who fled Roman pursuit in Turkey and was said to be
sheltered in the Syrian countryside by a crack miraculously riven in the
earth when she approached. In Damascus's Old City, Muslims buy and sell
Christian icons, a change from when Islamic conquerors chiseled the faces
from statues, believing that images of the human face were sinful.

The Umayyad mosque is a window on how varied the practice of Islam can be.
On Thursday night, the mosque was a sprawl of community activity. Bearded,
conservatively dressed men huddled in one corner for a Koran lesson. Groups
of women chatted casually against the walls. Children turned the open,
carpeted space into a playground, running, wrestling and climbing on a
repairman's scaffold.

In the middle stood John's tomb, covered in a cloth embroidered with Islam's
99 names of God, as well as the Muslim's central creed: There is no God but
God. Around it huddled Muslims praying to one of the chief figures of
Christianity, supplicating with their hands and scribbling private prayers
on the granite walls.

"We welcome Christians all the time here. We are close," said Ahmed
Mohammed, 42. "Jesus is part of Islam, and will come and run the whole world
with the peace of God."
"If people only knew what Islam was about," said Sheikh Nizzar Khattib, the
prayer leader at the Umayyad mosque for 40 years. "The teachings are the
same. That this globe was created by one God. There is right and wrong ...
Christ and Mohammed and Moses are one."
Copyright 2001, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
http://www.washingtonpost.com/. 
Source: WASHINGTON POST 07/05/2001 

more resources on the subject:

Title:         The Ethics of world religions and human rights /
                  edited by Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann.
Published:     London : SCM Press ; Philadelphia : Trinity Press
                  International, 1990.
LC Call No.:   BL65.H78E74 1990
More on this record



Title:         Christianity among world religions / edited by
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                  Marcus Lef^bure.
Published:     Edinburgh : T. & T. Clark, c1986.
LC Call No.:   BR127.C4734 1986



Title:         Das Ethos der Weltreligionen / herausgegeben von
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Published:     Freiburg : Herder, c1993.
LC Call No.:   BL80.2.E794 1993

Author: Khoury, Adel Th^odore. Title: Christentum und Christen im Denken
zeitgenössischer Muslime / Adel Theodor Khoury, Ludwig Hagemann. Published:
Altenberge : Christlich-Islamisches Schrifttum ; Soest : Vertrieb und
Auslieferung, CIS-Verlag, 1986. LC Call No.: BP172.K566 1986

Author:        Khoury, Adel Th^odore.
Uniform Title: La controverse contre l'Islam. German.
Title:         Der theologische Streit der Byzantiner mit dem
                  Islam / Adel Th^odore Khoury.
Published:     Paderborn : F. Schöningh, 1969.
LC Call No.:   BP172.K5715


Author:        Khoury, Adel Th^odore.
Title:         Toleranz im Islam / Adel Th^odor Khoury.
Published:     München : Kaiser ; Mainz : Grünewald, 1980.
LC Call No.:   MLCS 91/05695 (B)

Title:         Fundamentalism as an ecumenical challenge /
                  edited by Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann.
Published:     London : SCM Press, c1992.
LC Call No.:   BL238.F8 1992

Furthermore:


http://home.swipnet.se/islam/english.htm

Kind regards, peace, shalom and salam aleikum - even in times like these!

Arno