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Grand Imam of al-Azhar calls on Sunni, Shi’ite leaders to meet

Rasa – The Grand Imam of al-Azhar has invited senior Sunni and Shi’ite leaders to attend a conference on Islamic unity and various Egyptian scholars have offered their opinions on it.

News ID: 3070

Date: 03 August 2015 - 23:14

RNA – Following the growth of Takfiri terrorism throughout the Middle East, Shaykh Ahmad al-Tayyib, the Grand Imam of Egypt’s renowned Sunni institution, al-Azhar University, has invited senior Sunni and Shi’ite scholars to meet for a conference hosted by al-Azhar to issue a joint religious edict that Islam forbids murder and killing.

He urged Sunnis and Shi’ite scholars to foster a culture of coexistence and peace, brought about reactions in religious and political circles alike.

Many Egyptian scholars stressed the importance of this invitation due to the current conditions in the region.

Political analyst and writer Abdullah al-Sinawi said that this invitation takes al-Azhar University back to an earlier tradition established by the late Shaykh Mahmoud Shaltout, a former Grand Imam of al-Azhar during the Nasser years from 1958 until his death in 1963. He encouraged  rapprochement between Islamic sects, and who considered the Twelver Shi’ah school of thought as credible.

He said that the invitation by the Grand Imam of al-Azhar will have political consequences as it will dispel the current phenomenon of sectarian conflict and tension between the various Islamic sects and prevent the fragmentation of the region on a sectarian basis.

“This is an important step which will have two concerns - the first being political and the second religious,” al-Sinawi said.

Hasan Nafa’ah, a political science professor at Cairo University also commented about this event saying that this invitation is noble and important, but religious institutions alone are not enough.

But he added that the time is always appropriate to put forth initiatives and added this invitation came late but “any time is better than never. It is necessary to create the conditions for success and what is required is political will to contain the crisis between the sects because Islam is one.”

The Secretary-General of the Ahlul-Bayt Union, Tahir al-Hashemi also hailed the invitation adding that this invitation came too late and a conference should have before the outbreak of the phenomenon of terrorism and murder at the hands of extremists in the region.

He added: “We Egyptians Shi’ites strongly support al-Azhar’s current promotion of Islamic unity, which began with dialogue between the largest two factions of Islam and we call for al-Azhar to official determine our role in supporting Islamic unity and called on Shi’ite source of emulation in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait to announce an immediate response to this invitation.

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