Shaykh al-Azhar Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb heads high level delegation of Al-Azhar to Portugal
Grand Imam, Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb Shaykh al-Azhar, visited Portugal on an official overseas trip, where he praised the ‘pioneering experience’ of Portugal in terms of tolerance, which should be followed throughout Europe. The Grand Imam was speaking at the opening session of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Community of Lisbon, taking place in the Central Mosque of Lisbon. “Tolerance in Portugal is a pioneering experience,” he said, thanking the Portuguese people for a ‘spirit of coexistence’ with the Muslim community. The Grand Imam pointed to the good experience of Portugal, which should be followed by others in Europe where there is ‘violence and armed groups’. According to the Grand Imam, ‘walls in other European countries’ still exist.
On Thursday, the Grand Imam gave a lecture at the Catholic University, where he spoke of the need to strengthen dialogue among religions, to achieve peace in the world. He then spoke exclusively to the Renaissance, and he denied that there was any connection between Islam and terrorism. “There is a faction that always seeks to attribute terrorism to Islam, as if Islam were the cause of terrorism, and of course this faction will direct its criticisms to the University of Al-Azhar. We have always worked towards showing the world that Islam and Al-Azhar are not the reason for terrorism. Terrorism has other reasons, political reasons, “he explains. The Grand Imam pointed to the various Qur’anic passages that speak in a respectful way about Christians and Jews, or that prohibit compulsion in religion. Asked by the Renaissance about this theory, the Grand Imam clarified that ‘the word sword never appears in the Qur’an’, countering that ‘in the Old Testament it is mentioned, only in one chapter, 18 times. So what is the book we can accuse of speaking of the sword? The Old Testament or the Qur’an?’ On the other hand, he says that he has read the Gospels more than once and that he has never found any calls for violence there, but this did not stop the Crusades, in which “soldiers brought the Bible into one hand and the Cross into the other to kill and eliminate many groups and many people. Do we judge the Bible and Jesus Christ for these crimes?” He asked. “Either we accept that religions do not have this violence, or we accuse all religions for encouraging violence. It’s everyone’s fault. Either we forgive everyone, or we will judge everyone,” he concludes.
On Friday, the Grand Imam defended that the Portuguese state should give the descendants of Muslims expelled after the Christian reconquest the same rights of access to nationality granted to Sephardic Jews. In an interview with Lusa, Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb said that the facilities for Portuguese citizenship granted to the descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal should be extended to Muslims who had ancestors expelled from the country in the past. “Muslims who are descendants of Muslim families at that time also have the right to appeal to the entities to have their rights,” he said. In the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, many Muslims and Mozarabs were massacred or expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, within the framework of the religious radicalization of the Catholic Church at the time, which also led to the expulsion of Jews who continued to profess the Jewish faith. In recent years, Portugal has apologized for the expulsion of Jews and in March 2015 published a diploma granting the right of citizenship to the descendants of these families. A total of 2,160 Sephardim, Jews from the Iberian Peninsula expelled from Portugal in the 16th century, have acquired Portuguese nationality since 2016, according to data from the Institute of Registries and Notaries. For the Grand Imam, “there must be justice of citizenship regardless of the religious or ethnic origin of the person in question.”
Later during his trip, the Grand Imam also met with the President of the Republic of Portugal as well as several Portuguese ministers and officials. Praising the meetings, the Grand Imam believes that the Portuguese state will broaden the scope of legislation. “My opinion is that it has to be the same for everyone. Citizenship is based on a social contract that does not recognize discrimination of any kind,” he said.
The Foreign Minister of Portugal stated during the Grand Imam’s trip that the Islamic community in Portugal is ‘totally immune to the phenomena of radicalization’, pointing out that Portuguese diplomacy is seeking new collaborations with Muslim institutions to keep this scenario. Augusto Santos Silva spoke to Lusa at the end of a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon with the Grand Imam. “We have every interest in closer collaboration with the university,” said the Portuguese minister, recalling that it is ‘the main intellectual, religious and moral centre of Islam, at least of Sunni Islam’. “First of all, because we have an important and very well-integrated Islamic community among us. As I said to the Imam, ‘it is in the sunny days that the roof is repaired’. And the fact that this Islamic community that exists in Portugal is totally immune to phenomena of radicalization should be an incentive for us, so that we do – on our part – what is necessary for it to continue like this,” said Santos Silva.
On the other hand, he also said, “Al-Azhar University is preparing to open a Portuguese language department. This is very important for us, thinking not only of the Portuguese, but also of all those who speak Portuguese in the world and who profess the Muslim religion or have an interest in Islam.” Santos Silva also added that Portugal has been developing in Egypt, ‘with good results’, a program to promote the Portuguese language.
The Islamic community in Portugal has about 50,000 faithful and 51 mosques and places of worship, distributed throughout various areas of the country, namely the area of Greater Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, welcomed on Friday the humanist values of the Islamic community, hoping for the values of the founders to be continued for generations to come. In the 50 years of the Islamic community of Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa attributed the Order of Freedom to community leader Abdul Vakil. “Let us all know how to pass on to future generations these humanistic values which are by their very nature the values of Islam. This is the Islam of which the Imam of Al-Azhar [the University of Al-Azhar in Egypt] spoke to us today. Know the Islamic community of Lisbon continue to promote these same values and get future community leaders to respect and pursue the legacy of their founders,” said the head of state at the mosque in Lisbon. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa hopes that in five decades, religious freedom and freedom will continue to be celebrated in Portugal and he finished his speech by quoting the Koran in Arabic. “May the Portuguese celebrate the centenary of the Islamic community 50 years from now with the same enthusiasm for the message of dialogue, ecumenism, gift and peace, within the framework of religious freedom and freedom as a whole that characterizes Islam in Portugal and which it legitimates the decoration of this institution with the Order of Liberty, which in the name of all the Portuguese I understand should be apprehended. May the peace and blessing of God be with you,” declared the President of the Republic.
In addition to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, several personalities were present at the ceremony held this Friday at the Lisbon mosque, including the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
