Pope St. John Paul II visited the famous Umayyads Mosque in Damascus, one of the oldest and largest mosques in the world.
On this day in 2001, John Paul II became the first pope to enter a Muslim mosque and pray there. He visited the famous Umayyads Mosque in Damascus, the capital of Syria. It is one of the oldest and largest mosques in the world. The Pope took his shoes off before he entered the mosque, as is customary. The Syrian Grand Mufti was with him in Damascus.
Later, the successor of John Paul II also entered the Muslim mosque and prayed there. For the first time, Pope Benedict XVI visited the famous Sultan Ahmed Mosque i.e. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, during his visit to Turkey in 2006. Benedict XVI also visited a mosque in Jordan.
