Heading a high-profile UN delegation including Mr. Richard Dicktus, UN Resident Coordinator in Cairo, Mr. Kawabina Osei Dankwa, Chef de Cabinet to the President of the UN GA and a number of the UN advisors, Her Excellency María Fernanda Espinosa, President of the UN General Assembly visited Mashyakhat Al-Azhar, yesterday, Tuesday.
At the outset of her visit, her Excellency met with His Eminence Sheikh/ Saleh ‘Abbas, Wakil of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, who stressed that Al-Azhar performed an essential role in establishing the international peace and countering terrorism, maintaining meanwhile that the efforts of Al-Azhar are topped with His Eminence Prof. Ahmed Al-Tayyeb’s, Al-Azhar Grand Imam, trips to the world’s different countries, the Peace Delegations that visited 15 countries around the world, Al-Azhar’s envoys (scholars) to the different corners of the world, and Al-Azhar’s religious discourse and media statements promoting the values of tolerance, dialogue, and peaceful coexistence among people.
During the meeting, Her Excellency the President of the UN GA affirmed that Al-Azhar plays an important role in spreading the values of tolerance, peace, citizenship, correcting misconceptions, and countering extremist thoughts, lauding thereby Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism’s considerable efforts in countering extremism and terrorism and watching and refuting the extremists’ misconceptions on the Internet. She also praised the Observatory’s publications.
Her Excellency the President of the UN GA engaged in discussions with the Observatory’s researchers on the places of the extremist groups in the time being and asked about the work methodology the Observatory adopts in countering terrorism and the most recent publications and books produced by the Observatory.
Her Excellency the President of the UN AG visited also Al-Azhar Center for E-Fatwa to know about how it works, the most important fatwas and the nature of the questions people usually ask. She was also keen on talking to the female researchers in the “Woman’s Fatwa” Section about their role inside Al-Azhar Institution, the nature of their work, the kind of questions they frequently receive, the number of the questions they receive per day and the communication means between the Center and the public.