Grand Imam meets with Coptic Pope after attacks on church and mosque.
The Al-Azhar Grand Imam condemned the terrorist blast that occurred near Al-Salam Mosque in Giza Governorate on 9th December. An explosion on a main Cairo square killed six policemen and wounded another two in the attack. The terrorists targeted the police in front of the Al-Salam Mosque at the Madkour Square in the Giza Governorate.
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyeb Shaykh al-Azhar, said that “such terrorist acts will make Egyptians and policemen more resolved on going ahead in uprooting and ending terrorism aimed at destabilizing the country”. The Grand Imam further offered condolences to the families of victims and reiterated Al-Azhar’s solidarity with the police and army in combating terrorism.
A further twenty-five people were killed and 35 wounded in a bombing at Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral on Sunday 11th December, one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. The blast, which killed mostly women and children, was condemned by political and religious leaders including Al-Azhar University. The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyeb Shaykh al-Azhar, condemned the terrorist attack that occurred in the St. Peter Church in Abbasiya, reiterating that “targeting houses of worship and the killing of the innocents are criminal acts that violate Islamic principles”.
The Grand Imam visited and met with Egypt’s Coptic Pope Tawadros II to express his full solidarity with the Egyptian Church and Egyptian Copts in the face of terrorism, and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, and to all the Egyptian people, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured.
