clerics

Although he followed the church’s conservative doctrines on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, he shook up the conservative norms of the church when he told clerics not to be “obsessed with” those issues.

He largely hewed to the church’s conservative line on social issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights but urged clerics not to be “obsessed with” those issues.

Now, however, there are fresh concerns: while Syria under Assad saw political debates repressed, some worry that repression by clerics could end up forbidding some forms of art seen as anti-religious.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba expressed his disappointment about the clerics' pronouncement, telling the state-run Herald newspaper the matter was now "dead and buried".

The seminary - where clerics are taught - also known as a madrassa, is considered one of the region's most renowned religious educational institutions and is an important academic centre of the Deoband school of thought.