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CHURCH LEADER SAYS U.S. CRUCIAL TO PEACE IN THE MIDEAST
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Oct 10 2005
The United States has a big role to play in establishing peace in
the Middle East, where Christians are awaiting peace as eagerly as
are Jews and Muslims, an Armenian church pontiff said Sunday during
his visit to Southern California.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, is based
in Antelias, Lebanon, and speaks Armenian, English, Arabic and French.
More than 500,000 Armenians live outside Armenia in the Middle East
in such countries as Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, along with
other Christians.
"You can imagine that the peace process ... for us (is) something of
profound importance," Aram said. "This is the only way to bring the
region out of what I would say is its centuries-old conflict."
Aram is on an official visit to California on the 10th anniversary of
his ascension to the head of the Lebanon-based branch of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
This week he will visit the Armenian-American community in Fresno,
then come back to Los Angeles on Friday to meet with Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa.
Aram said the United States has a role to play in promoting peace in
the Middle East, and he said conflicts in the Middle East are more
than just political.
"I think we should go beyond politics in the strict sense of the word,"
Aram said. "The question is how we can we live together."
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern
California, has a different view. A political solution to the conflict
must come before religion can play a positive role.
"It's the folks with the weapons and the oil who are calling the shots,
not the people inside the house of worship," he said.
Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern
California, said Christians living in the Middle East have an important
role to play, especially in Israel.
"By virtue of their message and their long history of good relations
with Muslims and the fact that (orthodox Christians) and the Muslims
and Jews were victims of the Crusade(s), will give them that historical
role to act as mediators for peace," he said.
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Oct 10 2005
The United States has a big role to play in establishing peace in
the Middle East, where Christians are awaiting peace as eagerly as
are Jews and Muslims, an Armenian church pontiff said Sunday during
his visit to Southern California.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, is based
in Antelias, Lebanon, and speaks Armenian, English, Arabic and French.
More than 500,000 Armenians live outside Armenia in the Middle East
in such countries as Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, along with
other Christians.
"You can imagine that the peace process ... for us (is) something of
profound importance," Aram said. "This is the only way to bring the
region out of what I would say is its centuries-old conflict."
Aram is on an official visit to California on the 10th anniversary of
his ascension to the head of the Lebanon-based branch of the Armenian
Apostolic Church.
This week he will visit the Armenian-American community in Fresno,
then come back to Los Angeles on Friday to meet with Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa.
Aram said the United States has a role to play in promoting peace in
the Middle East, and he said conflicts in the Middle East are more
than just political.
"I think we should go beyond politics in the strict sense of the word,"
Aram said. "The question is how we can we live together."
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern
California, has a different view. A political solution to the conflict
must come before religion can play a positive role.
"It's the folks with the weapons and the oil who are calling the shots,
not the people inside the house of worship," he said.
Dr. Maher Hathout, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Southern
California, said Christians living in the Middle East have an important
role to play, especially in Israel.
"By virtue of their message and their long history of good relations
with Muslims and the fact that (orthodox Christians) and the Muslims
and Jews were victims of the Crusade(s), will give them that historical
role to act as mediators for peace," he said.