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Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Hubers to IMRA #2 : SANA report of Reform Church visit is accurate

Hubers to IMRA: SANA report of Reform Church visit is accurate

Dr. Aaron Lerner 14 October 2003

Earlier this week IMRA ran this item and contacted Priest John Hubers
["Hewpers" in the SANA report] by e-mail asking if the SANA report is
accurate. Hubers is filing reports on the trip on the Church website
www.rca.org .]:

Assad- Reformed Church in America praises Syria condemns Israel
Damascus 11-10-(SANA-Official Syrian News Agency)-
http://www.sana.org/english/headlines/11-10/president_assad.htm

President Bashar al-Assad received a delegation of the Reformed Church in
America at the People's Palace Saturday morning.

The delegation included:

Priest Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed Church
Priest David Shbatt, Head of the General Synods of the Reformed Church
Priest John Hewpers, Chairman of the Middle East Department at the Reformed
Church
Priest Riad Jarjour, Secretary General of the Council of the Middle East
Churches
Talks during the meeting dealt with the dialogue among religions and its
role in the understanding and displaying of realities.

Members of the delegation expressed strong condemnation of the Israeli
aggression on the Syrian lands, and their gratitude of the atmosphere of
religious tolerance in Syria.

They also voiced appreciation of President Assad's care and support to all
forms of dialogue among religions.

Ahmad F. ZAHRA

+++

#1
Priest John Hubers replied on 14 October to IMRA:

Dear sir,

This report is not accurate. We did meet with the president but studiously
avoided all politcal matters. We spoke only of Christian Muslim relations
nothing more.

jhubers

#2
He followed up with this message on 15 October:

Dear sir:

I should clarify on one point as I responded to this
at midnight and needed to be brief.

Our whole conversation with the president was framed
in the context of the need for continued dialogue
between Muslims and Christians not only in Syria, but
in the west, as well as the best means of preventing
the kind of conflict which has divided our communities
for far too long. This was expanded to speak of other
conflicts in the area which bedevil relations between
countries in the region. In this context the issue
of the Israeli raid on Syria was raised. Our general
secretary speaking less in behalf of our denomination
than as an expression of his own personal convictions,
noted with President Assad that this kind of military
action is not helpful to the process of peace making
that we all seek; that, in fact, it only adds to the
cycle of violence which makes reconciliation so
difficult to achieve.

My brief response to you noted that our conversation
with the president centered on Christian/Muslim
relations. This remains true as this was the purpose
of our visit. It was in this context that the issue
of the Iraeli raid came up. I write this to you so
that we can be clear about this as this kind of email
communication can often cloud rather than clarify the
issues.

Respectfully yours,

the Rev. John Hubers
Reformed Church in America

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