On the 21st of September every year, the whole world observes the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 by the United Nations, this Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.
On this special occasion, Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism extends its greetings to the whole world emphasizing that Quran, in many of its Verses, explicitly establishes peace and dialogue as the basis of treatment among people, not war and hostility. In this context, it is worth noting that the word “peace”, along with all its related linguistic derivations, appears 140 times in Quran, while the word “war” only exists 6 times indicating how Islam cares for peace and abhors unjustified war.
The Observatory also stresses the importance of working for peace maintaining meanwhile that it is a human necessity as all people –regardless of their religion– are jointly urged to incline to peace, lay its foundation, and remove all the barriers preventing from its achievement. The Observatory adds that peace is the umbrella under which all people are protected against conflicts and wars.