Greek Orthodox Patriarch's Statement

Here's an encouraging statement issued from Ignatious IV, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, to Pope Benedict. It's posted on Zaytuna's website, alongside an Arabic text (translation or original, I don't know). It reads, in part:

[W]e would like to clarify to Your Holiness some essential points that Eastern Christians live by and believe in. More than any others, they have knowledge, experience and understanding of Christianity and Islam together, for they have been in a state of coexistence, cooperation and harmony from the beginning of the Islamic mission until now. We have established the best of relationships, built on respect for religions and for everyone's freedom to practice rites as he wishes and according to his belief in the teachings of his religion and the principles of his divine law. This springs from the fact that both the essential and preeminent relationship between Christianity and Islam, and the culture of individual coexistence, have sprung from the East, from this land of sacred religions. Pope John Paul II praised - as you know - this coexistence and relationship, which he knew and read about, and which he observed during his historical visit to Syria.