On the Pope's visit to Damascus; common prayer
Syria-Vatican, Politics, 3/29/2001

The BBC correspondent in Damascus said that the visit of Pope John Paul II to Damascus will include a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. According to the spokesman for the Vatican, the Pope will stress the need of establishing peace in the region as well as visit the Christian and Islamic religious sites. The Pope will also meet with the Republic's mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kiftaro and with the Christian and Muslim men of religion as he will seek to bring together Christianity and Islam.

In the second day of his visit to Syria the Pope ( 80 year old) will visit the Umayyad's mosque where the tomb of Saint " John Paul the Baptist" lies.

The Pope's visit to the Umayyad's mosque will be the first of its kind.

The mosque which was a temple for Arameans for the God of Storms "Azad " three thousand years BC and then became a Romanian temple of Jupiter in the first century AD and then the temple was converted into a church for Saint John the Baptist.

Church news said that holy Christian- Islamic prayers will be performed by the Pope and the Syria's republic mufti at the courtyard of the Umayyad's mosque, but the Syrian Republic Mufti Ahmad Kiftaro denied such a prayer to take place by he confirmed the Pope's visit to the Umayyad's mosque.

In press statements Kiftaro recalled the sufferings caused by the Crusaders wars and the practices conducted by the Christian teams against Muslim peoples. This issue, however, is of greater importance than the apology offered by the Pope during his visit to Israel, as the Pope's visit to Damascus seeks to heal the wounds between Muslims and Christians.

Certain Muslim Imams in Syria attributed refusal of the joint prayers as a measure taken in order not to make it unprecedented matter that might be followed by further measures in other religious areas.

The Pope's visit to Damascus aims to follow up the traces of Saint Paul and to follow up his same steps. Saint Paul was the Jew who embraced Christianity on his way to Damascus and was considered the disseminator of Christianity in the world through the tours he held to Minor Asia, Macedonia and Greece.

Previous Stories:
  The Pope to visit Syria   (3/27/2001)
  No join prayers during the Pope's visit to the Umayyad's mosque   (3/16/2001)
  The Pope to perform a special prayer at the Umayyad mosque   (3/12/2001)

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