I'm surprised you would say something Jesus said was "primitive and sexist", given your earlier comments of support and that weird word - "pbuh" after saying mohammad or jesus.

Again, thank you for coming here.  I hope you continue here.
I do appreciate your input and fully support your right of speech.
Which would not happen to a jew/christian in an islamic country.

Damascus (ENI). Atop the historic Omayyad Mosque in Damascus is the Jesus minaret which honours the founder of Christianity. Inside the great mosque is the Shrine of St John the Baptist. It is a small, beautiful jewel of a church which is said to contain the head of St John who is revered by both Islam and Christianity.

I recently visited the mosque with a Syrian Christian friend. As we knelt in prayer before the Shrine of St John, trying to get a sense of the religious history of that ancient holy place, I noticed several men wearing sunglasses who were also kneeling in prayer next to the shrine.

"These are blind sheikhs," my friend told me quietly. "They offer blessings to children and people with special needs." Indeed, as I watched, I noticed several children kneeling around one of the sheikhs and receiving his blessing.

How remarkable, I thought: here is a Christian shrine inside a mosque with a minaret honouring Jesus, and Muslim holy men have chosen this small church as a place of healing to offer their blessings to children and sick people. The next day I asked Sheikh Salah Kuftaro of the Abou Al Nour Mosque in Damascus about this remarkable co-incidence of Islam and Christianity. As the son of the late Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, he is one of the key spiritual leaders of Syria. He and his staff gave a warm welcome.

"St John the Baptist is one of the prophets of God whom we venerate," said Sheikh Kuftaro. "If a woman is not feeling well she will ask God, through the sanctity of St John, that she be cured. Women who are childless seek the help of God so that they can conceive and have children." Through the nearly hour-long discussion Sheikh Kuftaro emphasised the close relationship between Christianity and Islam in Syria both in theology and in practice. "Religiously, we are an ideal society in Syria," he said. "We Christians and Muslims live as one family."

That relationship was demonstrated by the friendship between Sheikh Kuftaro and Mahat Farah El-Khoury, my Syrian Christian friend who had arranged the interview with the Sheikh and accompanied me to the meeting. They were old friends who had worked together for many years. They comfortably exchanged jokes between my serious questions.

Close friendships between Christian Arabs and Muslims are common in the Middle East. How much better it would be, I thought, if Christians in the West knew at least one Muslim as a personal friend, rather than getting their impression of Islam from the distorted images they receive from television.

Sheikh Kuftaro said the Canadian ambassador had visited his late father, the Grand Mufti of Syria. The ambassador asked how many Christians there were in Syria. The Grand Mufti replied that there were 17 million. The diplomat thought that perhaps there had been a problem with the translation since 17 million is roughly the total number of people in Syria, and Christians are only a minority. The Grand Mufti repeated that there were 17 million Christians in Syria "and I am a Christian. I have to be a genuine Christian," he explained, "in order for me to be an accepted Muslim." There is an "urgency" to have interreligious dialogue, Sheikh Kuftaro believes, and he and his foundation are reaching out to have dialogue with the West. "This is our duty," he said, "we have to work, to act and to meet so that we can know each other. We are all passengers on the same boat, this planet, which God ordered us to take care of."

Mahat Farah El-Khoury said: "Christians and Muslims have more in common than we have differences." She worked for the Middle East Council of Churches for many years and she has a deep knowledge of the spiritual life of her Muslim neighbours. "Every morning I wake up to the chanting of muezzin calling people to prayer from the minarets, followed by the sound of church bells and hymns."

In a lifetime of work building understanding between Christians and Muslims, Khoury has won many honours, including a medal from Pope John Paul II and state honours in France and Poland. Her work advocating for peace and justice has taken her to Europe and America and everywhere she goes, she talks about the cooperation between religions in Syria. During a recent trip to North America as part of a Mennonite Central Committee Peace Storytelling Tour, she reminded Christians they need to do more than just talk about Jesus; they need to advocate for policies that support peace and justice for all peoples in the Middle East....

malik - fyi

The old test is for jews.
The new test is for christians.
There is no christian country.
There are capitalist democracys, apart from in any islamic country.

Jesus did not abolish the law, he fulfilled it.
Christian are no longer held by it, as it is repaid. It is fulfilled.
There was a debt, it is repaid.
Look at what Jesus did with women , his actions with them are the most touching in the Bible, imho.

I'm surprised you would say something Jesus said was "primitive and sexist", given your earlier comments of support and that weird word - "pbuh" after saying mohammad or jesus.

Again, thank you for coming here.  I hope you continue here.
I do appreciate your input and fully support your right of speech.
Which would not happen to a jew/christian in an islamic country.

malik - i've alreay answered your queries.

answer me, who wrote the  koran?
Who put pencil to papyrus for it ?
it was not mohammad, he was illiterate.
did it just materalise out of the air ??

Who penned it ??

If you don't know that, ..............

thanks helain,
you've always disliked me.
it does not bug me. I love you.

just answer the question. Is that the muslim line ?

sure ok to grill us xians, not pc to query muslims though