President Assad Meets with Scholars, Clerics, Imams and Advocates

DAMASCUS,(ST)_ President Bashar al- Assad met today with a delegation representing scholars, clerics, imams and advocates from various Syrian governorates.

During the meeting, the President expressed appreciation for the positions taken by men of religion in withstanding the great pressure imposed on them to change their attitudes and to give up the right say, noting that their steadfastness was essential in supporting the steadfastness of the Syrian society.

President al-Assad noted the key role played by clergymen in perpetuating the right concepts against wrong terminology, because the most serious attempts faced by our region and the Islamic world, in general by the West target the creed and ideology in our society through the gradual change of terms, noting that the most important example of this attempt is to separate Arabism as a concept of human civilization from Islam, a matter which would create a state of instability on both the political and social levels.

President al-Assad pointed out that Political Islam is the scourge that has hit the Muslim world and its fall will bring Islam to its natural role.

The President added that facing extremism and terrorism is not only through condemnation, rather through consolidating the principles of true moderate religion -based ethics and a deep understanding of Islam and through the renewal of religious thought in line with social development through the use of reason and logic and open dialogue on the other, based on the persuasion, not intimidation, pointing to the key role of religious scholars in Syria and the Levant in general, to this end, given that Islam of the Levant was and still is the foundation which protects true Islam.

President al-Assad stressed the importance of institutionalizing religious work in order to create a broader vision and overcome mistakes, pointing out that the first step taken in this direction is to create a crisis jurisprudence in order to consolidate the foundations of common belief shared among Muslims against strife fatwas that work on the fragmentation of our societies.

T. Fateh