"Seventeen Million Syrians Could be Considered Christians," Says the Son of Syria's Grand Mufti On This Sunday's Hour of Power Broadcast.

Business, Radio/TV & Religion Editors

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept.14, 2000

Rev. Schuller Apologizes for the Crusades

In his continuing effort to help repair the divisive breach that stresses the differences rather than the common beliefs shared by the world's great religions, Rev. Robert Schuller has as his guest on this Sunday's Hour of Power broadcast (9/17) Sheikh Salah Kuftaro, son of the Grand Mufti of Syria, and a recent participant at the UN's World Millennium Peace Conference.

The Sheikh is Chief Advisor and Counsel to his father, who Rev. Schuller calls "one of the most preeminent Islamic scholars in the world of Islam with millions of followers throughout the world." It was the Grand Mufti who invited Dr. Schuller to become the first Christian leader to address an Islamic audience of 17,000 people at the Abou Nour Mosque in Damascus last December, prompting Rev. Schuller's invitation for the Grand Mufti to appear on the Hour of Power. When illness forced him to cancel his trip, his son came to represent him.

Carried by some 200 stations in the United States, the program is seen by more than 10 million people in 160 nations each week and has a large Muslim audience in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and the Phillippines.

Emphasizing that cooperation among religions is only possible by recognizing their common foundation and goals, Sheikh Kuftaro said that the entire population of Syria - seventeen million people - "could be considered Christians because unless we Muslims believe in the sacredness of the message of Jesus Christ in it's genuine core in the way that it was revealed from God, we would not be considered as Muslims."

"The true Muslim," he explained, "is he who believes in the message of Jesus Christ and the true Christian is he or she who believes in the message of Mohammed because they come from life and from one lantern.

"We as Muslims and Christians are in one camp," the Sheikh emphasized. "We do not discriminate between a Muslim and a Christian. Prophet Mohammed says about the people of the Holy Book that our rights are their rights and our duties and their duties are the same. He didn't say Muslims only, or the Christians, or the Jews. All creatures are God's dependents. None of you is a believer unless he loves for his brother fellow human that which he loves for himself. This is our doctrine."

The Abrahamic religions are not to blame for dissension, unrest or conflicts, the Sheikh believes. "It is us who sometimes have misconceptions, misinterpretations and misunderstandings." In presenting a copy of the Koran to Rev. Schuller, he said that "this is the book that has ordered us to love you and to be always in joint work with you. This is the way we can reach and achieve a just and comprehensive peace."

Asked about prospects for peace between Syria and Israel, the Sheikh replied: "We and the children of Moses are cousins. Whenever a lamp was lighted at the time of Mohammed for his family and before he ate anything, he always asked if you have given a part of it to our neighbor, the Jew. We do pray for just and comprehensive peace to take effect in our area - to become brothers and sisters loving each other so that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed will be pleased with us."

Commenting on the positive thinking Muslim leaders he has met desirous of promoting mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims, Rev. Schuller acknowledged that the violence characterizing past relations was due in part to a Christian invasion of Arab lands ten centuries ago.

To Sheikh Kuftaro, Rev, Schuller said: "I apologize to Islam for the Crusades that the Christians started in 1065."

Noting that the forty-one-year-old Sheikh will someday inherit the mantel of his father and that his son, Robert A. Schuller, will inherit the mantel of his ministry, Rev. Schuller called for the start of "a new crusade of comradeship, of friendship. We're in the same camp."

The program was taped on September 10 in the Crystal Cathedral before an audience which included prominent Catholic, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in California. The ministry will hold the third annual meeting of CAMP - Christians and Muslims for Peace - on the Crystal Cathedral campus on Oct. 6 and 7.

Consult your local listing for the time and station for Hour of Power in your market. A transcript of the program may be obtained by contacting Claudia Holloway at 714 971-4000.