Egyptian al-Azhar Mosque condemns Paris terrorism incident
CAIRO, Egypt (North Press) – On Friday, al-Azhar Mosque in Egypt condemned the “terrorist” Paris incident in which a French teacher was slaughtered by an “Islamic extremist.”
The French police announced the killing of a man minutes after he beheaded a teacher in a suburb of Paris. The incident came against the background of the teacher displaying cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students, which Muslims consider blasphemy, according to a police source.
Police sources said that witnesses heard the attacker chanting “God is Great”, before the execution of his crime, according to AFP.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook site, al-Azhar called for the enactment of global legislation criminalizing insulting of religions and their sacred symbols.
The statement stressed “the rejection of this heinous crime and all terrorist acts, and that murder is a crime that cannot be justified in any way.”
He also called for the need to adhere to the morals and teachings of religion that affirm “respect for the beliefs of others, and the rejection of hate speech and violence, regardless of its form, source, or cause.”
Al-Azhar Mosque is an Egyptian mosque in historic Cairo. The Fatimid dynasty commissioned its construction for the newly established capital city in 970. It was the first mosque established in Cairo, a city that has since gained the nickname “the City of a Thousand Minarets.”
The Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmed Al -Tayeb, inaugurated the al-Azhar Observatory in foreign languages to be one of the most important modern pillars of the al-Azhar Foundation, and described it as the eye of al-Azhar looking at the world, especially as it works in eight foreign languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Urdu, Persian, African languages , and Chinese).
The observatory consists of groups of young people and researchers who are fluent in many foreign languages’ full proficiency, through which it reads and tracks what is published in these languages about Islam and Muslims, with a focus on what extremists spread in terms of false ideas and concepts.
A judicial source told AFP on Saturday that four people, including a minor, had been arrested in connection with the incident. The detainees are linked to the attacker who was shot dead by police after the murder.
Condemning the “Islamic terrorist attack” that took the life of a teacher in Paris’ northwest suburbs, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening called on the French people to stand together and pledged quick and firm action by the government to combat terrorism.
“One of our fellow citizens was murdered today because he was teaching students freedom of expression,” Macron told the press after visiting the middle school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine hours after the attack struck.
“It is a teacher that this terrorist killed because he wanted to destroy the Republic…destroy the possibility of making our children free citizens,” he added.
“They won’t win…we will act.”
According to local media, the victim is a 47-year-old history teacher who had reportedly shown in his class cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, which are considered by Muslims as blasphemous, and was decapitated by a knife wielding assailant.
Recently, a controversy took place between al-Azhar and President Macron over his use of a similar term about Islam.
Scholars at Egypt’s prestigious Sunni Islamic institution, al-Azhar, have denounced remarks by Macron, according to AFP.
Macron on Friday unveiled plans to defend France’s secular values against radical Islam, describing Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide.
Over the past several years, France has witnessed a series of violent attacks by Islamist militants.