Ahmed Kuftaro

Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaru ( born 1915 in Damascus; † 1 September 2004), Arabic أحمد كفتارو, DMG Aḥmad Kuftārū, was a Syrian Grand Mufti and highest-ranking Sunni religious leaders of his country.

Kuftaru was the son of the theologian Muhammad Amin Kuftaru, after whose death he began in 1938 with the preaching in Abu- Nur Mosque in Damascus. With 31 years Kuftaru Mufti was. In 1958 he was Grand Mufti of the capital and six years later the whole country. Kuftaru campaigned for the mutual understanding of different people and called for a general dialogue. He died aged 89 of a heart condition.

Kuftaro received approximately one year after the seizure of power, Hafiz al - Assad in 1971 a seat in the Syrian Parliament. He described the re-election of the President in 1991 as a national and religious duty and belonged to the state-supporting establishment under Hafiz al -Assad. In 2003, he advocated armed resistance against U.S. forces in Iraq as a religious duty within the meaning of jihad.

The ancestors of Kaftaro come from Beth- Mahlam, a region between Mardin and Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey today. Originally they were Syrian Orthodox Christians and ethnically Arameans. For as yet unknown circumstances, probably to escape the oppression of Muslim rulers, went over the whole region Mahlam in the 17th century to Islam. Maintaining the converted Muslims have still their Aramaic villages and personal names. Your Arabic dialect is heavily influenced by Aramaic.

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