Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun

In 2016, it was reported by Amnesty International that Hassoun was one of three men who had been deputised by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the power to sign execution warrants for prisoners at Sednaya prison.

Hassoun's 22-year-old son, Sariya, was assassinated on October 2, 2011, in an ambush on the road between Idlib and Aleppo.

Hassoun is considered to be a firm supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a public address which aired on Syrian News Channel and was posted on the Internet on 9 October 2011 (as translated by Enab Baladi), Hassoun threatened Europe and the United States if Syria was attacked by external powers, stating that: "The moment the first missile hits Syria, all the sons and daughters of Lebanon and Syria will set out to become martyrdom-seekers in Europe and on Palestinian soil. I say to all of Europe and to the US: We will prepare martyrdom-seekers who are already among you. If you bomb Syria or Lebanon, it will be an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

Hassoun was interviewed by the German magazine Der Spiegel on 8 November 2011, saying that some of the protestors in Syria were armed Islamist rebels backed by Saudi Arabia. He talked about religion and politics in Syria during the revolution:

On January 15, 2008, Hassoun spoke to the European Parliament on the subject of intercultural dialogue, stressing the value of culture as a unifying rather than a dividing force. Hassoun was addressing a formal sitting of Parliament as the first speaker in a series of visits by eminent religious and cultural leaders in 2008, which had been designated the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. He made the statement "Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohamed came with one single religion", therefore "there is no holy war, because a war can never be holy: it is peace that is holy"; later he added that it is wrong to use religion to justify killing.

On September 6, 2006, Hassoun met the Armenian Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian, to discuss the relationship between the two nations, as well as the two religions, among other issues. In the same travel he met the Catholicos of All Armenians.

Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun (Arabic: أَحْمَد بَدْرُ ٱلدِّين حَسُّون, romanized: ʾAḥmad Badr ad-Dīn Ḥassūn; born 25 April 1949) was the Grand Mufti of Syria from 2005 to 2021, after which the post was abolished.

Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassun was born in Aleppo, Syria. His father, Muhammad Adib Hassun (1913–2008), was also a sheikh. He has five children and ten grandchildren. Hassoun studied at the University of Islamic Studies, where he graduated as Doctor in Shafi'i fiqh. Hassoun took office as Grand Mufti of Syria in July 2005 after the death of Ahmed Kuftaro. Hassoun is a frequent speaker in interreligious and intercultural events, and his pluralistic views on interfaith dialogue (between different religions or between different Islamic denominations) have sparked criticism from stricter visions of Islam.