Religious Fraternity

By ABNA Staff Writer, *Christian-Muslim Music Celebrating Prophet Mohammad's Birthday in Syria* - Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Tehran, Iran; Saturday, February 19, 2011

As a sign of religious fraternity in Syria, Muslim and Christian chanters shared the Opera House stage on Thursday marking the anniversary of the Birthday of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him).

Damascus: In their first joint presentation, the voices of the members of Tahlila Group for Sufi Chanting and the Christian al-Farah Choir filled the Opera House stage in an special evening of religious songs.

During the evening, the singers chanted religious liturgical poems illustrating the prophetic values, such as "Ya Ajmal Alanbia'", "Malik al-Mulk", "Al-Hamdo Lak", etc..

The singers were keen to give their songs a heart and soul touching humanitarian aesthetic character with a sophisticated vocabulary filled with sublime spirituality.

"It is an unquestionable and absolute reality that we are in Syria, Muslims and Christians, are equal regardless of the different paths we walk toward God," said Father Elias Zahlawi, the founder of al-Farah Choir.

"To translate our faith in God," he added, "we must love each other and cooperate to build a worthy humane society."

Leader of Tahlila Group, Mr. Hisham Al-Khatib, for his part, said that the anchoring of the spirit of religious fraternity is one of the primary goals of his group, hoping to organize other such ceremonies and celebrate religious occasions with al-Farah choir in the future.

Founded in 2000, Tahlila Group specialized in Sufi music and recitation seeks to promote the genuine Arab Islamic cultural heritage, particularly in Europe, through a methodology based on modern melodic songs.

As for the al-Farah (Joy) Choir, it first saw the light in 1977 at the hand of Father Elias Zahlawi with a group of 55 children, and has now come to include 500 singers.