BEIRUT: In the first such meeting held in Brazil at the invitation of Lebanon's Dar al-Fatwa, Christian and Muslim religious leaders underlined the need for unity against extremism and violence.
The meeting at the Renaissance Sao Paulo Hotel Monday grouped Christian and Muslim religious leaders as well as Arab ambassadors representing the Arab League, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in addition to consuls from the U.S., UAE, Indonesia, Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Bahrain.
Security leaders also attended the meeting, held under the title “Christ in Islam.” University deans, heads of political parties, associations and clubs as well as other officials interested in the interfaith dialogue and a number of notables of the Lebanese and Arab community in Brazil also were present.
A statement released Tuesday by the office of Sheikh Mohammad Moghrabi, Dar al-Fatwa’s representative in Brazil, said the head of the Orthodox Church in Brazil, Bishop Damaskinos Mansour, stressed during the meeting on the “importance for unity in the face of extremism and violence committed in the name of religion.”
Mansour highlighted the fact that Muslims and Christians have “lived peacefully for hundreds of years.”
Moghrabi shared his condemnation with Mansour, rejecting “fighting, killing and destruction committed in the name of religion.”
He spoke of the significance and benefits of such meetings, stressing that “Brazil is the model of coexistence and equality.”
“The Muslim community in Brazil does not have any particular plan, but to work on the prosperity of Brazil,” he said.
Moghrabi supported the peoples’ “call for change” in peaceful ways and called on the world’s powerful countries to stop supplying militants of various groups with weapons, but rather address the causes of extremism and violence through dialogue.
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