In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Dear all,

     I would like to welcome all of you to Egypt and to Al-Azhar Al-Sharif. It gives me great pleasure to see promising Christian and Muslim youths from the East and the West have come together to meet here at Al-Azhar Headquarter in order to discuss the most crucial issue that highly preoccupies the world, i.e. global peace and coexistence between the East and the West.

Dear participants,

     Your meeting is a fruit of collaborative efforts jointly made by Al-Azhar Center for Interfaith Dialogue and major church institutes topped by the World Council of Churches (WCC).

     Through this historic forum, the first thing that Al-Azhar wishes to reaffirm in its message to the whole world is that all the Divine religions, sealed by Islam affirm that man is honored and respected. They prohibit bloodshed, assault, and terrorism. From the Islamic perspective, perpetrating any of such violations is deemed a major crime and corruption that should be encountered to protect the society from its destructive impacts.

     The Qur᾿ān points out in clear-cut terms that the norm of human relationship should be based on mutual acquaintance, cooperation, and exchange of benefits in order to sustain human lives and make the world prosperous. There is no room in Islam for relations that are based on conflicts and economic, cultural or military hegemony between nations and peoples. This is because the Qur᾿ānic perspective about the issue of social peace, at the local and international levels, is derived primarily from a logical fact that has been proved by history and reality: All people can never be united by one religion, dogma, language, ethnicity, color, or fingerprints. Any attempt to bring them together on one faith or culture is doomed to failure and a represents a denial of history. Simply, it is against the norm of creation as Divinely set by the Lord of the Universe.

     Islam is the seal of heavenly religions; its message perfects the previous Divine messages sent to humankind. It necessitates firm belief in the past laws revealed to Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (Peace be upon them all) and, thus, confirms the Scrolls of Abraham, the Torah of Moses, and the Gospel of Jesus in the same manner it confirms the truth of the Qur᾿ān. Islam directs its followers to approach the followers of Moses and Jesus to the extent of allowing Muslim men to marry Christian and Jewish women, and ordaining the values of goodness, love, and mercy equally among them. The Qur᾿ān states that Allah has placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of the followers of Jesus until the Day of Resurrection.

     The call to Allah in Islam is identified to be through wisdom and quiet dialogue that does not insult the others or offend their faiths. Islam also refuses to promulgate its message through wars or under compulsion. Likewise, it denies the use of money, authority, or temptation to win others' hearts or minds. The Qur᾿ān states:

• “There is no compulsion in religion.” (Qur᾿ān, 2:256)
• “Whoever wants to believe let him believe; and whoever wants to disbelieve let him do so.” (Qur᾿ān, 18:29)

     The role of Prophet Muḩammad as described in the Qur᾿ān is to convey and show the path to Allah. The Prophet (pbuh) cannot be a controller over people or force them to follow him. He only calls them to Allah and shows them the path of truth distinguished from that of misguidance. Allah states,

•  “Your duty is but to convey [the Message]. (Qur᾿ān, 42:48)
• “You are not commander over them.” (Qur᾿ān, 88:22)
• “You are not to compel people to accept faith.” (Qur᾿ān, 10:99)

     For a Muslim, people are either fellow Muslims or fellow human beings. A Muslim, as Prophet Muḩammad tells, is the one from whose tongue and hand all people are safe. The real Muslim lives in peace and never hurts any human being, physically or verbally. Islam forbids all the forms of harms against the followers of other religions. Any Muslim who harms them becomes an enemy to Prophet Muḩammad (pbuh) on the Day of Judgment. Allah and His Messenger cut relations with such person in this life and in the Hereafter.

Dear Muslim and Christian young people,

     I trust you and place great hopes in the purity of your innate disposition, souls, and minds. I am sure you have freed yourselves from old traditions that prevented past generations from fulfilling their duties of imparting the culture of peace worldwide. I am filled with hope that you will deepen human fraternity and end destructive wars that kill thousands of innocent people and cause the poor and sick people, children, and women to suffer and lose lives and blood guiltlessly. They have no part in these wars. Absurd decisions initiate wars without acknowledging the right of the poor and the fragile people to live. You should combat destructive ideas intended to instigate conflict, violence, and hate.

     I have absolute confidence in your youthful and great enthusiasm and your heightened state of awareness. You will be ambassadors of peace, mercy, and cooperation to the entire humanity. Your first cause should be how to create a new world free from bloodshed, poverty, illness, and ignorance.

     It is the message of Al-Azhar to support you. You are all Al-Azhar ambassadors to the mission of peace to humankind.

Thank you!

May Allah’s peace and blessings be with you!

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In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

All praise is due to Allah. May Allah’s Peace and Blessings be upon His Messenger Muḩammad, his Household, and his Companions!

Dear All,

As-Salāmu ‛Alaykum wa Raḩmatu Allahi wa Barakatuh

     I commence my speech with giving thanks and offering praise to Allah. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your offering me this great invitation to attend this blessed forum. I ask Allah to grant you success and the potential to achieve the outcomes you aspire. I wish I could have attended all the sessions of this forum, but some important commitments predetermined before receiving your invitation kept me.

     Let me express my profound gratitude for you for holding such a dignified forum. Today, we are in a dire need for such gatherings that put together the efforts of the Muslims and make them as united as one body. "When one of its limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever." This makes it incumbent upon a Muslim not to have bigotry for one opinion or ideology, nor make it a basis for inciting sectarianism that ultimately causes disunity and division among the Muslims and fills them with hatred instead of being fellow worshippers of Allah and cooperate in goodness and piety, as Allah declares: "This nation of yours is one nation."

     Islam commands its followers to build bridges of cooperation with their brothers in humanity who embrace other faiths, to strive to strengthen the ties of love and amicability, to take the initiative to turn animosity into cordiality by means of Allah's Mercy and Might and to treat them in a good and fair manner.

Allah says, "Allah would put affection between you and those to whom you have been enemies among them. Allah is All Competent, All Forgiving and Most Merciful. Allah does not forbid you from being righteous toward those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes, or from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly." [Qur᾿ān, 60:7-8]

     What makes this forum important is that it is held during such a crucial time when the Muslim communities in the East experience political, economic and social crises that threaten their security and stability. The crisis of having a sense of insecurity about one's life, honor, and homeland is probably the worst of all. One more crisis is manifested in the lack of peace, spread of chaos and turmoil, domination of force and vulnerability of the weak. Worse still, the barbaric crimes of killing and blood-shedding taking place now are being committed in the name of religion that Allah revealed as guidance, light and mercy for people.

     The sounds demanding expulsion of Western Muslims from their lands or marginalizing them at their homes –represent fuel and a pretext for radicals and extremists to act with more violence, kill more innocent people and attack their properties and houses. These are all reflections of the deeply-rooted crises of our world today. Sincere humans have to try their best to reject these ideas and confront such attitudes with one purpose: to protect the dignity of man. The human being is the creature that Allah has preferred over other creatures and blessed with the gift of mind and intellect to protect himself against hate, malice, exclusion, marginalizing or infringing the rights of the others. All the human beings share the same origin, as the Almighty Allah tells us in the Qur᾿ān "O humankind, fear your Lord Who have created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women." (Qur᾿ān, 4: 1)

     Needless to say, the killing and destruction practiced by these terrorist groups have caused much suffering for the Muslims Nation., The heavy price is paid by thousands of refugees who forcefully left their homes after being devastated and after losing their families and children. Therefore, they escaped the horrors of war in their home countries. Western societies have also been suffering from this extremism along with tragic events in which many innocent victims are killed there. This matter makes it incumbent upon all of us to work together and cooperate to confront this danger threatening all of us. We have to insist on proceeding towards cooperation, love and defending our homes.

     Al-Azhar has always openly expressed its view on various international causes that concern the public opinion in international forums, especially those related to the sanctity of human beings, extremism, religious freedom, religious tolerance, cooperation and mutual coexistence for the welfare of all humanity, as well as confronting poverty, problems of the environment and diseases that threaten humanity. All of this is based on the teachings of the Qur᾿ān which tells us:

• “O humankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female and made you peoples and tribes so that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous. Indeed, Allah is All Knowing and All Acquainted.” (Qur᾿ān, 49: 13)
• “Help one another in goodness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and aggression; And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty.” (Qur᾿ān, 5: 2)

Honorable Audience,

     The Almighty Allah has not revealed religions as a cause of suffering for peoples or to frighten and terrify them; rather, religions have been sent as light, guidance and mercy. True Muslims, in particular, has nothing to do with terrorism and its consequences of bloodshed and violence. I personally do not know any religion or a Divine Script which has vowed severe punishment for shedding blood in this world life and the Hereafter as the Holy Qur᾿ān has. The Qur᾿ān prescribed retribution for intentional killing in this world and promised the killer severe punishment in the Hereafter: “Whoever kills a believer deliberately, the punishment for him is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah becomes angry with him, curses him and prepares a tremendous torment for him.” (Qur᾿ān, 4: 93)

     How could Islam be described as a religion of terrorism, while Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) says, "The best Muslim is one from whose tongue and hands other humans are secure"? The Prophet (pbuh) also says, “The whole of a Muslim for another Muslim is inviolable: his blood, property and honor.” Islam does not only prohibit killing and bloodshed but also bans intimidating people even if by way of joking. The Prophet (pbuh) says, "He who points a weapon towards his brother, the angels invoke curse upon him even if this is his real brother so long as he does not abandon it." The Prophet also says, "It is not lawful for a Muslim to frighten a fellow Muslim."

     Paradoxically, Islam is charged with terrorism, violence, and barbarianism while Allah describes His Prophet as "mercy" for all the humans. Allah says, “We have not sent you, [Prophet Muḩammad] except as a mercy to the worlds.” (Qur᾿ān, 21: 107) Prophet Muḩammad himself affirms that Allah has sent him as a mercy for all the worlds when he once described himself, saying, “I am a gift of mercy granted by Allah the Almighty.”

     I call upon our brothers and sons who live in the USA and other Western communities to preserve their identities and adhere to their religious teachings. They should set a good example that embodies the teachings of this true and tolerant religion that calls them to be effective contributors to the building of human civilization structure wherever they exist, as their predecessors did. They should contribute to the revival of the communities with which they live, observe the promotion of these communities, and keep them safe and stable. They should also  avoid to blindly follow these delusive calls that jeopardize their life and expose them to Allah's wrath in this world and the Hereafter.

     Let me ask the Western leaders and politicians to avoid generalization or building any connection between the Islamic teachings and what the terrorists who merchandize religion do. The Islamic teachings do call for mercy, tolerance, forgiveness and brotherhood. They are based on justice, fairness and beneficence. Terrorism has no relation whatsoever with any religion or country. I remind you that the Muslim scholars and historians were so fair and objective in distinguishing between religion, its principles and leaders on the on hand, and the deviations committed by some followers of these religions.

     Evidently, when we observe the Islamic scholarly heritage, we find that Muslims used to call the terrorist Crusade wars as "foreign wars." They did not attribute them to religion, though these wars were waged in the name of religion. They did not attribute them to Jesus, because they were aware that there was a big difference between religion as a Divine guidance and those who merchandize it for personal whims and political expansion. This is what Al-Azhar has confirmed in the Conference it has convened particularly to confront all the forms of terrorism. Prominent Muslim scholars and representatives of the religious leaders of various Eastern and Western Churches and other ethnic and religious sects attended this conference.

     Al-Azhar is always ready to offer you help and support by sending imams and scholars to promote the true understanding of religion and to correct misconception about Islam, as well as grant scholarships for your sons and daughters to study at Al-Azhar.

     To conclude, I thank you again for your invitation, and I ask Allah to grant you success, to bless your efforts and to unite our word for the welfare and stability of all humanity!