The Grand Imam Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, Sheikh Al-Azhar received Gérard Larcher, President of the French Senate and his accompanying delegation.
The Grand Imam welcomed the President of the French Senate at Al-Azhar, and emphasized the depth and the diversity of the Egyptian-French relations, as well as the special ties between Al-Azhar and France through the French cultural center at Al-Azhar University, the delegations of peace and through exchanged meetings and visits.
His eminence referred to the keenness of Al-Azhar on continuous cooperation and communication with all cultures and civilizations to establish world peace and promote dialogue, tolerance and mutual coexistence. The Grand Imam also referred to the readiness of Al-Azhar to establish a cultural center in Paris, in order to depict true religion and to safeguard Muslim youth from extremist groups, in addition to the readiness of Al-Azhar to train imams of France on dealing with various challenges and issues that face them in their communities.
His eminence the Grand Imam emphasized that Al-Azhar is concerned with promoting moderate and tolerant thought among Muslims all over the world, and has taken advanced steps in renewing thought and subjects of humanities, and in countering extremist thought through updating the syllabus of various stages of the educational system of Al-Azhar. On his part Mr. Larcher told the Grand Imam that his visit to France has had a great impact on the French people and it portrayed the true image of Islam and the tolerance of Islam. Moreover, Sheikh Al-Azhar’s visit to the Bataclan theatre in Paris, which witnessed a terrorist attack, was a wonderful human stance that showed a significant message against terrorism.
Furthermore, the President of the French Senate expressed his appreciation of the role of Al-Azhar in promoting the moderation and tolerance of Islam and in countering terrorist thought. Larcher also commended the tours made by the Grand Imam, as well as his speeches to the people of Europe, which establish peace, dialogue, tolerance and acceptance of the other, in addition to calling Muslims to blend positively within their European communities.
The President of the French Senate also expressed the aspirations of his country to strengthen cooperation with Al-Azhar as regards training French imams and passing the expertise of Azharite scholars to them, emphasizing that France is in need of benefitting from this expertise to spread it among the youth to safeguard them against the dangers of extremist thought.