His Eminence Prof. Ahmed Al-Tayyeb the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar expressed his strong condemnation and anger at the insistence of some officials in Western countries to use the term "Islamic terrorism," not heeding the fact that they offend the Islamic religion and its followers and disregard its tolerant Sharia that encompasses laws and principles that criminalize the violation of all human rights, including rights to life, freedom, brotherhood and mutual respect.
The Grand Imam also stresses that linking terrorism with Islam or any other divine religions is a shameful confusion between the reality of religions that came down from heaven to make people prosperous and the exploitation of these religions for despicable purposes by some of their deviant followers. "Those gentlemen who do not stop using this hateful description do not realize that they block the path to any fruitful dialogue between the East and the West and further promote hate speech between the members of the same society," said Al-Tayyeb.
The Grand Imam called on the wise people of the West, including officials, thinkers and opinion leaders, to pay attention to the fact that the utterance of these misleading terms will only increase hatred, intolerance and distortion of the principles of tolerant religions that in fact call for the renunciation of violence and the promotion of peaceful coexistence among all.