John Paul II visits Syrian mosque

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Pope John Paul II was reaching out to both Christians and Muslims during his second day in Syria Sunday, with a schedule that included a morning Mass at a soccer stadium and the first visit by a Roman pontiff to a mosque.\nThe groundbreaking mosque visit was to come a day after the pope's call for concord among people of different faiths was met by hard-line rhetoric from Syria's president, who urged John Paul to side with Arabs in their dispute with Israel.\nThe pope called for a "new attitude of understanding and respect" among Christians, Jews and Muslims.\nBut at an arrival ceremony, President Bashar Assad referred to what he described as Jewish persecution of Jesus Christ in an address that reflected persistent hatred in the region.\nThe state-controlled Syrian media kept up the rhetoric Sunday. A front-page editorial in the Al Thawra newspaper called Israelis "enemies of God and faith" and said their state "was sent by neo-Crusaders as a bridgehead to oppress and enslave the region."\nIn Israel, the response to Assad was stern.\n"We hoped that after the Holocaust such statements would be a thing of the past and every leader of the enlightened world should condemn them," Deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior said in a statement late Saturday. He called on Roman Catholic leaders to reject such statements "with revulsion."\nMass in the 40,000 seat Abbasid Stadium drew thousands of people Sunday morning. Shortly before the pope was to arrive, most of the seats inside were filled with people chanting "John Paul II, we love you!" and waving Syrian and Vatican flags.\nOutside, people stood on balconies to watch giant television screens. A live broadcast of the Mass on state television began with helicopter shots of the pope riding to the stadium in his popemobile.\n"The presence of so many people shows we are a strong minority with strong roots in the country," said Mala Ika Khalas, a 55-year-old Christian who was among a group of about 70 who rented two buses and drove five hours to the Mass from the northern port city of Aleppo.\nNadia Safar, 27, also from Aleppo, said the pope's visit made her proud.\n"The fact that the pope, who is so old and tired, has traveled so far shows that we are a significant entity, and we are thankful."\nThe stadium named after a Baghdad-based medieval Arab dynasty sits in an east Damascus neighborhood that a generation ago was predominantly Christian. Today, it is home to Christian and Muslim families.\nIn the days before the pope's arrival, workers covered parts of the stadium in white marble and repainted its stands. Hundreds of white plastic chairs were set out on the field facing a stand erected to serve as an altar.\nBehind the altar stood a giant, pink cardboard replica of the facade of the ancient Church of St. Simon in Aleppo.\nLater Sunday, John Paul was to go as a pilgrim to the Omayyad Mosque in the old walled city in central Damascus. Christian pilgrims regularly enter the mosque to see a shrine believed to contain the head of John the Baptist.\nThe site where the mosque stands has a religious history stretching back 3,000 years. It was initially a place of worship dedicated to the Semitic god Hadad and later became a temple of the Roman god Jupiter. Following the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the temple was converted to a Christian church dedicated to St. John the Baptist.\nIt is believed that Christians continued to worship at the church for several decades after the capture of Damascus by the Muslim Arabs in 636. The Muslim ruler al-Walid turned the compound into a mosque in the early years of the 8th century.\nA planned joint Muslim-Christian prayer at the mosque was canceled, apparently because of fears of wounding Muslim sensitivities. But Syria's top Muslim clerics were to escort the pope into the mosque.