Al-Azhar Imam slams Israeli ban

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb, has strongly condemned the Israeli authorities for preventing Dr. Yousef Salame, the preacher of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, from going to Egypt to participate in the Al-Azhar Al-Sharif conference, which opens today. It will be attended by delegations from 86 countries around the world.

Al-Tayeb said in a statement issued yesterday that this decision is completely unacceptable and that it reflects the arrogance of the Israeli authorities when dealing with the Palestinian people and their religious leadership.

The Grand Imam said that the Al-Azhar Conference in Support of Jerusalem seeks to expose the violations of the Israeli occupation authorities, to affirm the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and to stand against the recent decisions by the US administration.

The Conference is organised by Al-Azhar in cooperation with the Council of Muslim Elders and is being held and under the patronage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The conference will be attended by a large number of scholars, clerics, thinkers and writers, and will discuss awareness of the issue of Jerusalem and its Arab identity.