President Bashar Assad issued a decree Saturday appointing Sheikh Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, 56, as Syria's new grand mufti, the official news agency "SANA" reported. He succeeds Ahmad Kuftaro 89, Syria's grand mufti for four decades, who died of a heart attack last September. Hassoun is "altruist and rejects violence in all its forms," said Abdul-Ghani Bakkar, head of the cleric's office. Hassoun, viewed in Syria as a moderate Muslim cleric, obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic jurisprudence from al-Azhar University in Egypt. He has served as the mufti of Aleppo province in northern Syria since 2000 and was a preacher at al-Rawdha Mosque in Aleppo where he taught Islam. Hassoun delivered sermons in Syria and several Arab countries. He also visited the United States where he attended religious conferences and lectured on Islam.
