The Imam of Al-Azhar in an interview to the Vatican media after his audience with the Pope: “He is a man of peace, with him we resume the path of dialogue.” Islam has nothing to do with the violence and we denounce the deviations. There are more Muslim than Christian victims.
“I am in the heart of Europe and I would like to take advantage of my presence in this important Catholic institution - the Vatican - to launch an appeal to the whole world to unite and close ranks to confront and put an end to terrorism”, affirmed the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyib, in an interview with Vatican media after yesterday’s audience with the Pope. “[Francis] is a man of peace [and] with him we resume a path of dialogue” after past misunderstandings, affirms the Sunni leader of the prestigious Cairo-based center of learning. “Islam has nothing to do with this terrorism,” he points out, stressing that Al-Azhar is revising school textbooks to eliminate the deviations introduced by “those who use violence and terrorism and by the armed movements that claim to work for peace”. Terrorism, affirms Al-Tayyib, “should not be presented as a persecution against Christians in the East; on the contrary, there are more Muslim than Christian victims.”
“I am in the heart of Europe and I would like to take advantage of my presence in this important Catholic institution - the Vatican - to launch an appeal to the whole world to unite and close ranks to confront and put an end to terrorism, because I believe that if this terrorism is neglected, it is not only easterners who will pay the price, but both easterners and westerners will suffer together, as we have seen,” said the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyib (in an interview translated into Italian by the Arabic section of Vatican Radio) who continues his European trip in France today. “This is my appeal to the world and the free men of the world: make an agreement now and intervene to put an end to the rivers of blood. Let me elaborate a bit upon this: yes, terrorism exists, but Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and this applies to the Muslim ulema and to Christians and Muslims in the East. And those who kill Muslims, and who also kill Christians, have misunderstood the texts of Islam either intentionally or through negligence. A year ago Al-Azhar University held a ‘General Conference’ which brought together Sunni and Shia Muslim authorities, and Eastern Church leaders of different religions and confessions were invited, and even the Yazidi sent a representative to this conference held under the aegis of Al-Azhar. And among the most salient points of the joint statement was that Islam and Christianity have nothing to do with those who kill, and we asked those in the West not to confuse those belonging to deviant groups with the rest of the Islamic world and we said with one voice, both Muslims and Christians, that we are masters of this land, and we are partners and we each have a right to this land. We rejected forced emigration, slavery and the buying and selling of women in the name of Islam. Here I wish to say that the matter should not be presented as a persecution against Christians in the East, on the contrary, there are more Muslim than Christian victims, and we are all subject to this great catastrophe. In short I would like to conclude this point by saying that we cannot blame religions for the deviant behaviour of some of its followers because in every religion there is a deviant faction that raises the banner of religion to kill in its name.”
“[Al-Azhar] has a dialogue or rather a commission for an interfaith dialogue with the Vatican that had been suspended due to precise circumstances but, now that these circumstances are gone, we resume the path of dialogue and hope it will be better than it was before,” explained the Grand Imam.
“[Pope Francis] is a man of peace; a man who follows the teaching of Christianity which is a religion of love and peace, and by following His Holiness we have seen that he is a man who respects other religions and shows consideration for their followers; he is also a man who dedicates his life to serving the poor and the oppressed, and who takes responsibility for people in general; he is an ascetic man, who has renounced the ephemeral pleasures of worldly life. These are all qualities that we share with him which is why we felt eager to meet this man and to work together for mankind in this vast common area.”
The University of Al-Azhar is engaged in an important project to revise school textbooks. “We,” explained Al-Tayyib, “revise them in the sense that we clarify the Muslim concepts that have been deviated from by those who use violence and terrorism and by the armed movements that claim to work for peace. We have identified these misconceptions, and we have presented them - within a curriculum - to our students in middle and high schools; we have displayed the deviant side and the deviant understanding while at the same time we are trying to help our students understand the correct concepts from which these extremists and terrorists have deviated. [Furthermore,] at Al-Azhar we host the Imams of mosques which are located in Europe as part of a two-month program to provide training in dialogue, reveal misconceptions and talk about the integration of Muslims in their societies and European nations so that they can be an asset for the security, wealth and strength of those countries.”
In general, “I think the time has come for the representatives of the Divine Religions to forcefully and concretely turn humanity towards mercy and peace, so that humanity can escape the great crises we are now suffering. The man without religion is a danger to his fellow man, and I think people are now, in this twenty-first century, beginning to look around and to seek wise guides that can lead them in the right direction. All this has led us to this meeting and this discussion and the agreement to begin with the right step in the right direction.”
The grand Imam of Al-Azhar concluded by expressing his “sincere thanks, appreciation and hope - that I will take with me - to work together, Muslims and Christians, Al-Azhar and the Vatican, to lift the human being wherever he is, regardless of his religion and his belief, and save him from the crisis of destructive wars, poverty, ignorance and disease.” The interview was held at the residence of the Egyptian Ambassador to the Holy See and was attended by two editors of Vatican Radio: Father Jean-Pierre Yammine, head of the Arab section, and Cyprien Viet, from the French section together with Maurizio Fontana from the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. The interview was audio and video recorded by Vatican Radio and by the Vatican Television Centre and took place entirely in Arabic.
