Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro

THE top Sunni Muslim religious authority in Syria, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, died in Damascus yesterday, an official of the late cleric’s Islamic theological school said. He was 89.

Mufeed Aloush, the media chief of the Abu Nour Islamic Foundation, in the Syrian capital, said that Grand Mufti Kuftaro had died of a heart attack. He had undergone a surgical operation two days ago, he said.

A moderate cleric, Kuftaro obtained a PhD in Islamic jurisprudence from the Islamic Hadayat Allah University, in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1968. He also had a PhD in the origin of religion and Islamic jurisdiction from Omar Farouk University, in Pakistan, and another from the Islamic Um Darman University, in Sudan.

In 1968, Kuftaro was awarded Pakistan’s Golden Star medal by the former president of Pakistan Ayoub Khan. Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, rewarded him with the Egyptian Sciences and Arts medal in 1998.

Kuftaro was elected as Damascus’s grand mufti just one year after he began teaching Islam in the city’s schools in 1950. He established the Abu Nour Foundation, now run by his youngest son, Salah Kuftaro. The foundation teaches Islam to about 6,000 students, including 1,000 foreigners from around the world.

Kuftaro accompanied Pope John Paul II to the revered Omayyad Mosque in Damascus’s old city during the Pontiff’s visit to Syria in 2001. John Paul was the first pope ever to visit a Muslim house of worship.

Married twice, Kuftaro is survived by 11 children. He will be buried today in a Damascus cemetery.