The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday clergymen and scholars have pivotal role in consolidating true concepts against wrong terms

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday clergymen and scholars have pivotal role in consolidating true concepts against wrong terms because the most dangerous attempts which target the region and Islamic world are the West attempt to strike ideology and faith in society through gradual change in terms.

President al-Assad, meeting a group of scholars, clergymen, mosque preachers, affirmed that stances of clergymen who have showed courage and high national responsibility in face of the big pressures to which they were subjected in order to change their stances or abandon the word of right are appreciated stances.

The President added that scholars' steadfastness was a basic factor in the Syrian society struggle.

President al-Assad said an example on the west's attempt to change the terms is to separate Arabism with its human and civilized concept, not ethnics from Islam, aiming at creating a state of destabilization on the social and political levels.

The President affirmed that the plague which hits the Islamic world is the plague of political Islam, adding that its collapse has returned Islam to its normal role, namely, Dawah (inviting for true Islam.)

President al-Assad said combating terrorism and extremism won’t be only through condemnation or refutation, but through consolidating principles of true Islam though innovating the religious mentality to keep up with society development through using brain, logic and dialogue which is open to the other, based on conviction, not intimidation.

The President pointed out the basic role of scholars and clergymen in Syria and Bilad al-Sham to achieve this goal in light of the fact that Islam in Bilad al-Sham was and still is the basis which protects the true Islam.

President al-Assad affirmed the need for institutionalizing the religious work away from individualism to create a broader vision and overcome mistakes, adding that the first step taken in this regard was establishing jurisprudence of the crisis in order to strengthen the common ideological bases as Muslims in the face of fatwas of sedition which try to divide our societies.