Baroness D'Souza, Speaker of the House of Lords,

Respected Ladies and Gentlemen,

Members of the House of Lords,

Peace be with all of you.

     Allow me at first to express to you how delighted I am to be among this distinguished group, the grandchildren of the makers of civilization and modernity, the guardians of social justice, the advocates of freedom and human rights, freedom of religion, of opinion and creativity.

     I have come to speak to you and to listen to you with the hope that our thoughts and opinions meet at a point for the good of all the people in the West and the East.

     Allow me also to speak to you briefly about Al-Azhar that I represent. Al-Azhar is a scientific and educational institution. Its roots go centuries back as it was founded in 972 CE. It was built to be a mosque for worship and teaching together. This has continued from that time, and it still carries the responsibility of promoting knowledge about this religion of Islam. It is also responsible for conveying its scientific and spiritual message in a pure form to all people today. In the modern time, Al-Azhar has developed to be one of the biggest institutions, including the oldest university in the world. This university is now composed of seventy one different faculties located all over Egypt from Aswan in the south to Alexandria and Damietta at the Mediterranean Sea in the north. More than 300,000 students study different branches of knowledge in all its faculties, including the knowledge of the Islamic Shar‛iah, which is taught in specialized Islamic faculties; in addition to natural sciences which are taught in the faculties of science, medicine, pharmacy, engineering, agriculture and other. Among these students of Al-Azhar University there are 14,000 oversea students from 110 countries from all around the world. There are 10,000 pre-university educational institutes where two million students, boys and girls, study, many of them are also overseas. In addition to this, there is the Islamic Research Academy.

     I believe it is important to refer to the fact that the curricula taught to the students at Al-Azhar since childhood until they graduate from university is based on multiple thoughts and different points of view. These involve the study of different Islamic sects within Sharī‛ah and Islamic jurisprudence. They are also based on presenting all the opinions that may even contradict each other. As such, the students receive their knowledge at Al-Azhar from the age of ten. They are taught that these different views together are sound and that they correctly express Islam. This way actually helps the mind of the students of Al-Azhar to accept different opinions. This case also makes them liberated from being narrow-minded or sticking to one opinion or doctrine viewed as right by one group and wrong by another. This multiple-view methodology, the students typically grow with, gives these students an open mind and immunity against extremism, exclusion, violence and labeling other disbelievers.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

     Look at the leaders of terrorism and extremism, do you find among them a graduate from Al-Azhar? It will be very difficult to find one like this, except for one well known person.

     I apologize for this lengthy introduction which, I hope, is enough to depict the right image of Islam that is faithfully expressed at Al-Azhar. I hope it has managed to prove you the falsity of the claims that some of the terrorist and militant movements were borne from the womb of Islam, and that the teachings of this religion had made ‘ISIS’ and other terrorist movements. It is not true either that Islam is responsible for this black terrorism. Unfortunately, these bad rumors have spread widely. They have been welcomed and they have led to Islamophobia as a phenomenon which has been playing a very serious role in fuelling the clash of civilization between the West and the East.

   Let us now agree, my friends, on a principle which we all can refer to. It is not fair or acceptable to judge religions by the acts of some terrorists and criminals who are attributed to these religions. This is for the simple logical reason that the teachings of religions condemn these terrorists and their terrorist inhuman crimes. If we as Muslims should not condemn the Christian and Jewish religions because of what some of their followers have committed against the Muslims, including killing, displacement and aggression now or in the past, then why should Islam be responsible for the acts of those people who behave against its teachings? We say this in spite of the clear condemnation of the Muslims of the crimes of these militant groups in America, Europe and the Arab World. All that they do, such as beheading, and burning people alive in the name of Islam is all condemned and absolutely rejected.

     The reasons that stop us, ladies and gentlemen, from judging Judaism and Christianity by what is committed by some of their followers against Muslims is that our Islamic faith would never be complete except by believing in these two religions and all the previous heavenly messages. We believe in all the prophets and messengers of Allah including Moses, Jesus and Muḩammad, peace be upon them.

     Reading the history of the crusades, I have noted that Muslim historians have avoided calling them crusades. They call them the wars of the foreigners. I have also noticed that the word ‘crusade’ was not included in the modern Arabic literature except when it was translated from European literature.

     Heavenly religions, ladies and gentlemen, first and foremost are nothing but messages of peace to the human beings. I even believe that they all form a message of peace to animals, plants and the environment. We need to know that Islam as a religion does not allow the Muslims to use weapons except on one condition, which is to defend oneself, one's property and country. It never happened that Muslims fought others to force them to adopt the religion of Islam. In addition, Islam does not see non-Muslims, including the Christians and the Jews, from the perspective of enmity, tension and violence, but from the perspective of human brotherhood and kindness. There are clear verses in the Qur᾿ān, too many to mention here, which state that the relationship between the Muslims and those who live peacefully with them, regardless of their religions or sects, is one  of love, fairness and righteousness. It is not fair for some to claim that Islam, as revealed to Muḩammad (pbuh) and which expresses itself through Qur᾿ānic statements, is contradictory to Christianity or Judaism. In fact, it presents itself as the last link of one Divine chain of religions called Islam, starting with Adam, going on with Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and ending with Muḩammad, peace and prayer be upon them all. Moreover, Islam states that the origin of religion is one in all these messages and that is why the Qur᾿ān mentions the Torah and the Gospel with great respect. It recognizes their impact in protecting humanity from going astray. This is why Allah, the Almighty, describes the Torah and the Gospel in the Qur᾿ān as “guide and light.” He also describes the Qur᾿ān as a Book that confirms the truth in the Scriptures that preceded it, particularly the Torah and the Gospel.

     Islam is linked with all the other heavenly religions with physical links, though it has a special relationship with Christianity. It is stated in the Qur᾿ān that the Christians are the closest people to the Muslims. The relationship between the two religions is friendly and brotherly. Christians as described by the Qur᾿ān are humble people who do not show pride. The followers of Jesus, peace be upon Him, are given compassion and mercy in their hearts by God. Many of the Christian clergymen express their joy at what they read in the Qur᾿ān and the prophetic sayings (Hadith) about Christianity and the Christians in general and about Jesus and Mary, peace upon them, in particular.

     I think that the messages of religious fraternity communicated by Islam and Christianity are enough to build bridges of continuous understanding and closeness between the Muslims and the Christians in the East and the West, especially when the two religions are academically and objectively considered, away from the materialism, politics and misinterpreting, distorting their teachings and making use of their sanctity to achieve personal benefits and interests at the expense of universal and moral values.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Members of the House of Lords,

     Unfortunately, the current international situation is dominated by fear from the terrorism that is expanding in many regions. We have to pay attention to the fact that if ISIS is expanding now in the Middle East, it will expand in any place in the world in the future unless we have a serious international will to confront this destructive epidemic. We need to be frank in analyzing the reasons which have led to its emergence and its fast expansion so that we may combat this grave danger and eliminate its sources and potentials.

     It has become necessary, ladies and gentlemen, that the relation between the East and the West should be one of peace and understanding that is based on mutual respect for their different doctrines, identities and cultures. Above all, we need to have a sense of global and human brotherhood. You may be surprised to know that the scholars of Al-Azhar paid attention, from the very beginning, to the necessity of this brotherhood. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Marāghi sent a message to the international conference held here in London on 3rd July 1936, in which he reached the conclusion that there was no way for humanity to resolve the international conflicts except by achieving international collegiality among the nations. He presented a detailed plan that cannot be elaborated on here due to time constraints.

     I would like to assure you that Al-Azhar Al-Sharif gives priority, at the present time, to unveiling the falseness of the extremist thoughts and their great deviation from the Islamic Sharia. Al-Azhar held an international conference, last December, in which all the oriental churches and the religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the Sunni, Shiite, the ᾿Ibāḍi scholars and others were represented. They all made a clear statement (a copy of which will be given to you) which criminalized violence, extremism and blood-shedding. The statement also noted that the heavenly religions are innocent from killing people and infringing their rights. It also denounced the practices of forced displacement of non-Muslims in Iraq from their areas and called on them to remain in their homes and fight such practices.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

     We have come here, at an invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, full of honest desires to achieve mutual understanding, close co-operation, complete respect for the religious and cultural differences, in order to achieve our dream of international peace so that the poor and rich, alike, can enjoy such peace. Do I have the right to have such a dream?

Thank you for listening.