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Rome (AFP)
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, condemned the beheading of a teacher in France, saying it was a “sinful terrorist act”, and stressed that insulting religions under the slogan of freedom of expression is “a explicit call to hate “.
The words of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar came in a speech he delivered remotely in Rome on the famous Capitol Square to a group of prominent Christian, Jewish and Buddhist clergymen, including Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I and French Chief Rabbi Haim Corsia, who met Tuesday to sign a joint invitation for peace.
In a speech delivered in Arabic, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar said: “As a Muslim and as the Sheikh of the noble Al-Azhar, I absolve Almighty God and absolve the faults of the true Islamic religion and the teachings of the Prophet of Mercy Muhammad – may God bless you and grant you peace – from this vicious act of terror. “
“At the same time, I stress that insulting religions and denigrating their sacred symbols under the slogan of freedom of expression is an ideological duplication and an explicit call to hatred,” he added.
Samuel Patty, a history and geography teacher, was beheaded Friday near a school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in northwest Paris.
“It is clear that they issued a fatwa against the professor,” Interior Minister Gerard Darmanan said, referring to the two arrested suspects, referring to the father of a student and the extremist Islamist activist Abdelhakim Al-Sefriwi.
The teacher showed his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression.
French police killed the attacker, Abdullah Anzarov, an 18-year-old Russian Chechen.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar said in his speech: “This terrorist and his ilk are not expressing the religion of Muhammad; may God bless him and grant him peace.”
In September, Al-Azhar denounced the decision of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, starting the trial of jihadist associates who murdered members of its editorial board in January 2015.
In October, the Islamic Research Academy in Al-Azhar, the supreme scientific body of the prominent Sunni institution, described French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements on Islam as “racist” and “supporting hate speech,” denouncing “accusations. “against Islam.
In February 2019, Pope Francis and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar signed in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the “Document of Human Brotherhood,” in which they condemned religious extremism and support for terrorists.
© 2020 AFP
