CAIRO, April 3: Muslims around the world on Sunday praised the late Pope John Paul’s drive to build bridges with Islam, saying his compassion and leadership changed their view of the Catholic Church. The Pope led a campaign over the past two decades to help turn conflict between the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics and 1.2 billion Muslims into cooperation and visiting Syria in 2001 he became the first Pope officially to set foot in a mosque.
“His role was vital in gathering people in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims,” said Ali el-Samman, an adviser to the grand sheikh of Egypt’s al-Azhar mosque and university.
Palestinian and Afghan leaders commended the Pope’s support of their people’s desire for freedom, and clerics in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh hoped his successor would build on the Pope’s efforts to strengthen ties of understanding with Islam.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Pope “a great religious figure who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom, justice and equality for all races and religions, as well as our people’s right to independence”.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: “We remember that during the years of Afghanistan’s occupation by the Soviet Union, the Pope raised his voice of support to the Afghan people.”
President Hosni Mubarak of predominantly Sunni Muslim Egypt praised the Pope’s “long journey of giving, during which he remained a symbol of love and peace and one who called for dialogue between religions.”
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the Pope had commanded the three paths of religious learning, philosophical thought and poetic and artistic creativity.
The first non-Italian Pope in 455 years, John Paul II threw off many of the formalities of his office, travelling widely, writing five books and putting together a CD of religious music.
“This was a good man, a man of peace,” said Theirno Habibou Tall, a Muslim leader who met the Pope during his visit to pre-dominantly Muslim Senegal in 1992.
Many Muslims hope the Pope’s successor will continue to tread the path of understanding between the two religions that he chalked out.
A key event along this route was the Pope’s 1986 invitation to Muslims and adherents of other faiths to pray together at Assisi for world peace.
In Kuala Lumpur, Azizan Razak, a cleric and senior leader of the opposition Parti Islam-se Malaysia, said: “We hope his successor will follow his footsteps to increase understanding between Muslims and Christians.”
In Bangladesh, home to nearly 140 million Muslims, Moulana Obaidul Haque of the Baitul Mokarram national mosque, said the world had lost a great religious leader. “We hope his successor will also work for world peace,” the cleric added.
The Pope’s vigorous opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was widely appreciated in the Muslim world, Malaysian political analyst Chandra Muzaffar said.
“He was also right at the forefront of the protest against the war on Iraq,” Chandra said. “That showed he was committed to global justice and peace.”
In the largely Catholic Philippines, one leader of an influential group of Muslim clerics said John Paul served as a “bridge of understanding” between Christians and Muslims.
“I was touched by his gesture to pardon a Muslim who tried to assassinate him,” said Sharif Julabbi of the Ulama League.
The Pope survived an attempt on his life by a Turkish gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, in May 1981.
But some in the Arab world had only disdain for the Pope.—Reuters
