Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun (Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun) is the Grand Mufti of Syria since July 2005.[1]
Contents |
The Sheikh Hassoun was born in Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, in 1949. His father, allamah Muhammad Adeeb Hassoun was also a sheikh. He has five children and ten grandchildren. Hassoun studied at the University of Islamic Studies, where he graduated as Doctor in Shafi'i fiqh.[1] Dr. Hassoun took office as Great Mufti of Syria in July 2005 after the death of Ahmed Kuftaro.[2] Dr. Hassoun is a frequent speaker in interreligious and intercultural events, and his pluralistic views on interfaith dialogue (between different religions or between different Islamic denominations) has sparked criticism from stricter visions of Islam.
On September 6, 2006, Dr. Hassoun met the Armenian Foreign Minister to discuss the relationship between the two nations, as well as the two religions, among other issues.[3] In the same travel he met the Catholicos of All Armenians[4]
On January 15, 2008, Dr. Hassoun spoke to the European Parliament on the subject of intercultural dialogue, stressing the value of culture as a unifying rather than a dividing force. Dr Hassoun was addressing a formal sitting of Parliament as the first speaker in a series of visits by eminent religious and cultural leaders in 2008, which had been designated the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. He made the statement "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 added that it is wrong to use religion to justify killing.[5][6]
On 19 January 2010, Hassoun sparked controversy when, speaking to a delegation of Christians and Jews from the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, he allegedly commented, "If the Prophet Muhammad had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Muhammad himself a heretic," and, "[i]f Muhammad had ordered me to kill people, I would have told him, 'You are not a Prophet.'" In a later clarification, Hassoun stated that his initial statement had actually been, "If our Prophet Muhammad had ordered me to disbelieve in Moses and Jesus..."[7][8]
Provoking an outcry amongst many orthodox Muslims, news of the incident reached the English-speaking world primarily after the prominent Muslim scholar Shaykh Muhammad al-Ya’qoubi's public condemnation of the mufti. During his Friday sermon of 22 January at Masjid al-Hasan in Damascus, Ya’qoubi decried Hassoun's indiscretion, imputing disbelief to his words, and demanded that the mufti resign. Yaqoubi's comments led to his immediate dismissal from the pulpit..[9]
Hassoun is considered to be a firm ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.[10] In response to a perceived threat of NATO intervention, Hassoun is reported to have threatened retaliation through suicide bombings in the US and EU.[11] Hassoun cited the Arab Christian suicide bomber Jules Jammal as an example of a non Muslim Syrian who carried out a suicide bomb martyrdom attack on the west, and warned that Non Arab and Non muslims would assist Syria in martrydom/suicide bombing against the west.[12] Hassoun's 22-year-old son, Sariya, was assasinated on October 2nd in an ambush in the road between Idlib and Aleppo.[13]
In a public address which aired on Syria News TV and was posted on the Internet on October 9, 2011 (as translated by MEMRI), Hassoun threatened to activiate suicide bombers in Europe and the United States if Syria is attacked, stating that "The moment the first missile hits Syria, all the sons and daughters of Lebanon and Syria will set out to become martyrdom-seekers in Europe and on Palestinian soil. I say to all of Europe and to the US: We will prepare martyrdom-seekers who are already among you, if you bomb Syria or Lebanon." He further added that "Do not think that the people who will commit martyrdom in France, Britain, or the US, will be Arabs and Muslims. They will be a new Jules Jammal or a new Muhammad Al-Durrah. They will all be like the righteous [of the past]."[14]
Hassoun was interviewed by the German maganized Der Spiegel on 11/08/2011, saying that some of the protestors in Syria were armed Islamist rebels backed by Saudi Arabia. He talked about religion and politics in Syria during the revolution:
"But then imams who had come from abroad, especially Saudi Arabia, stirred things up with their inflammatory speeches. The news channels stationed in the Gulf states, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, helped them by falsely claiming that the clergy was on the side of the anti-Assad protesters.", "And what has really improved in Egypt? Should we welcome the rise of Islamist parties? I believe in the strict separation of church and state." "How many, 50 or 55? We're talking about an army of tens of thousands of men. But some of the radical Sunni imams from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region are stirring people up, and unfortunately they are finding a few Sunni imams in my country who sympathize with them. For instance, they have pronounced a fatwa against me, because in their view I am betraying religion and am too moderate. But I'm not the only one on their hit list." "They set their sights on my innocent son Saria, a 22-year-old student who was always friendly to everyone, who was studying International Relations and did not want to make religion his profession. So much for the kin liability you've criticized elsewhere! Oh, if only the four killers had killed me instead.", "There are close ties between the Saudi royal family and the American White House. The Americans are often on the side of the oppressors. I am always on the side of the oppressed." "I see myself as the grand mufti of all 23 million Syrians, not just Muslims, but also Christians and even atheists. I am a man of dialogue. Who knows, maybe an agnostic will convince me with better arguments one day, and I'll become a non-believer. And if I'm enthusiastic about the opposition's political platform, I also might change sides."[15]