CAIRO (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, is freezing inter-religious dialogue with the Vatican over Pope Benedict XVI’s insults against Islam.
“The pope’s statements are often against Islam and Islamic countries,” Dr Mustafa Al-Shakaa, member of Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, told in exclusive statements on Thursday, January 20.
“His statements even turned into interfering in the affairs of the Muslim countries, including Egypt.”
Benedict called on the Egyptian government to protect Copts following a deadly church attack in the northern coastal city of Alexandria on New Year’s eve, which killed 21 people.
The Egyptian government and Al-Azhar criticized Benedict’s statements as interference in Egypt’s affairs.
“This is an interference in our affairs,” Al-Azhar Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed El-Tayyeb told the press conference earlier this month.
Tayyeb said the pontiff has repeated similar calls following attacks against Christians in Iraq suggesting that the Christians were facing mass persecution in the Middle East.
“But he never spoke about the mass killings of Iraqi Muslims at the hands of American and their allies,” he added.
Benedict’s positions have often caused controversies.
In September 2006, he delivered a lecture in Germany quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor that everything Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) brought was evil and inhuman.
The lecture triggered criticisms from Muslim countries, scholars and intellectuals and strained ties between the Vatican and the Muslim world.
The pontiff has repeatedly said the words did not reflect his personal views but stopped short of a clear apology to Muslims.
He also drew the ire of religious leaders after issuing a document titled “Dominus Jesus,” which clearly stated that Christianity was the only true path to salvation.
Meaningless
Al-Azhar said that Benedict’s repeated insults against Islam render inter-religious dialogue failure.
“The Islamic Research Council reviewed in an emergency meeting on Thursday the repeatedly insulting remarks issued by the Vatican Pope towards Islam and his statement that Muslims are discriminating against others who live with them in the Middle East," Al-Azhar said in a statement.
"The council decided to freeze dialogue between al-Azhar and the Vatican for an indefinite period."
The Cairo-based body said the inter-religious dialogue with the Vatican will be meaningless unless the pope apologizes for his insults.
“The dialogue will not be useless unless the pope apologizes for his past insults,” Al-Shakaa told, referring Benedict’s lecture linking Islam to violence.
The biannual inter-religious dialogue discusses Islamic-Christian affairs.
“We freeze the dialogue until Benedict changes his position about Islam and stop interfering in our affairs,” Al-Shakaa said.
Established in 359 AH (971 CE), Al-Azhar mosque drew scholars from across the Muslim world and grew into a university, predating similar developments at Oxford University in London by more than a century.
Al-Azhar, which means the "most flourishing and resplendent," was named after Fatima Al-Zahraa, daughter of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).
The first courses at Al-Azhar were given in 975 CE and the first college was built 13 years later.
Al-Azhar first admitted women students in 1961, albeit in separate classes.
Also in 1961, subjects in engineering and medicine were added to classes on Shari`ah, the Noble Qur’an and the intricacies of Arabic language.
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