Pope urges religious leaders to unite against “barbarity”
Leaders of all faiths should unite in renouncing religious
extremism and counter the “barbarity of those who foment hatred and violence,”
Pope Francis said on Friday at the start of a two-day visit to Cairo, Egypt.
“Let us say once more a firm and clear ‘No!’ to every form
of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the
name of God,” the pope told a peace conference at Egypt’s highest Islamic
authority, Al-Azhar.
Francis’s trip, aimed at improving ties between Muslims and
Roman Catholics, comes three weeks after Islamic State suicide bombers killed
at least 45 people in two Egyptian churches.
“Together let us affirm the incompatibility of violence and
faith, belief and hatred,” he said at the 1,000-year-old Sunni Muslim seat of
learning.
Francis headed straight to meet Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi after landing in Cairo, driving through heavily guarded
streets but eschewing an armoured motorcade and instead using a normal car with
his window wound down.
“Pope of Peace in Egypt of Peace,” read posters plastered
along the road leading from the airport to central Cairo.
He is due to give three speeches on Friday and will
celebrate an open air Mass on Saturday at a military arena.
His visit comes at a time of high tensions in Egypt, the
most populous Arab nation.
Besides the Palm Sunday bombings, Islamist militants on
Thursday attacked a police checkpoint close to St. Catherine’s monastery at
Mount Sinai.
The pope referred to Mount Sinai, where the Prophet Moses
received the 10 biblical commandments, and specifically invoked the famed
injunction “thou shalt not kill”.
The pontiff has repeatedly said that Christian-Muslim
dialogue is the only way to overcome Islamist militants who have persecuted
Christians and driven them from their 2,000-year-old communities in Iraq and
Syria and are now hitting them in Egypt.
His message carried special resonance inside Al-Azhar, where
he is a guest of its Grand Imam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, widely considered among
the most moderate clerics in Egypt.
In his speech, Tayeb said militants had “carelessly” and
“ignorantly” misinterpreted religious texts. “Islam is not a religion of
terrorism,” he said.
Tayeb has faced criticism from within Egypt’s parliament and
sections of the media, who say Al-Azhar is an ossifie
Francis stressed the importance of strong education.
“To counter effectively the barbarity of those who foment
hatred and violence, we need to accompany young people,” he said.
Tayeb visited the Vatican in 2016, restoring relations with
the Roman Catholic Church after they had been cut in 2011 in protest at what
Egyptian Muslim leaders said were repeated insults directed at Islam by
Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict.
The pope has been applauded by moderate Muslims for his
efforts to improve relations. He has washed the feet of Muslims during Holy
Week ceremonies and in 2016
brought Syrian Muslim refugees back to Italy with him from a
Greek migrant centre.
His visit to Cairo is also aimed at bolstering sometimes
frosty relations with Coptic churches, and he will meet Pope Tawadros II, head
of the Coptic Orthodox Church who narrowly escaped a church bombing in
Alexandria this month.
He will also go to Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral to pray
for the 28 people killed in a Christmas season blast in 2016 and lay flowers in
their memory.
Copts represent about 10 per cent of Egypt’s 92 million
population.
(Source: Reuters/NAN)
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