Jerusalem, and Palestine as a whole – including its Islamic and Christian sanctuaries, represent a model and a symbol of religious, civilizational and human (co)existence. So, violating its sanctity threatens religious and national peace in the world. Since Jerusalem fell under Zionist occupation, the holy city has been subjected to plans aimed at Judaizing it, changing its identity, obliterating its Arab marks, replacing the homes of its indigenous people with colonial settlements, and imposing temporal and spatial division of the Noble Sanctuary. Even recently, the occupation imposed arbitrary measures that restrict Muslims’ access to the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

 

The scheme of Judaization is ceaseless in light of the failure of international community and world powers to face the occupation’s breaches and violation of international resolutions, the continued support offered to the occupation, and prevention or thwarting of any international resolution that holds it accountable for its aggressions and crimes. Things became worse with the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist occupation. This step was vociferously denounced by Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif and many peace-loving people in the world. It was then followed by the US President’s announcement of the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. This irresponsible decision unfairly acknowledges Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity occupying Palestinian Arab territories.

 

Here, Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif proceeded from the religious responsibility and trust pledged to it for more than one thousand and seventy years, during which it stood in defense of the causes of the Muslim nation and all other just causes worldwide, most prominently the right of the Palestinian people to recover their full rights, sanctities, and historical land. Hence, he Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb decided to hold an international conference entitled, Al-Azhar International Conference in Support of Jerusalem, in Cairo (January 17-18, 2018). The conference brought together international organizations and bodies concerned with the issue of Jerusalem and all peace-loving people in the world. They all discussed practical mechanisms that sustain the dignity of the Palestinians, protect their land, preserve the identity of religious sanctities, and deter the Zionist arrogance that defies all international resolutions, and that incenses more than four billion Muslims and Christians around the world.

 

Presidents, ministers, religious leaders and leaders from numerous world countries participated in the conference, led by H.E. President Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Marzouq Al-Ghanim, Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly, and H.H. Pope Tawadros, People of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, former WCC Secretary General, and a delegation from the Jewish anti-Zionist group, Neturei Karta.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

All praise be to Allah, may peace and blessing be upon our Prophet Muḥammad, his Family, his Companions and those who have followed his right path.

His Excellency President Maḥmoud ‛Abbās, Head of the Palestinian State,

Distinguished members of the panel,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Honorable Attendants, 

May peace and blessings of Allah be upon you all. You are welcome to Egypt, your second home country, and to Al-Azhar. I would like to thank you for accepting Al-Azhar’s invitation to attend and participate in this international conference to support Jerusalem and Al-ˀAqşā Mosque, the first of the two qiblas, the third of the Muslim Sacred Mosques, and the place of the ˀIsrāˀ of the Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH). 

This conference is held under the auspices of the President ‛Abdel Fattāḥ Al-Sīsi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt who, together with the Egyptian people, pays great attention to the issue of the beloved Palestinians, especially with the recent complications of the unfair policies and irresponsible decisions. We sincerely invoke Allah to grant success, power and steadfastness that subjugate only to the establishment of the truth, justice and fairness to the vulnerable people, to His Excellency Mr. President, all the Arab and Muslim leaders and all the honest people around the world concerned with Palestine and its people, land and sanctuaries. Likewise, I would like to praise Mr. President Maḥmoud ‛Abbās, the head of the Palestinian State, and urge him for more resistance and persistence.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Since April 1948, Al-Azhar has been holding successive conferences about Palestine, Al-ˀAqşā Mosque and the Muslim and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem. From 1948 to 1988, Al-Azhar held eleven conferences that were attended by great Muslim and Christian thinkers and scholars of Africa, Europe and Asia. During these conferences, several highly precise, deep and detailed pieces of research were presented by those who had little or no hope to achieve any significant results.

These conferences frequently declared the rejection of the Zionist violation of the Muslim and Christian sanctities, the occupation of Al-Aqşā Mosque, burning thereof and violating its sanctity by the excavations, tunnels and massacres taking place in its yard. They also declared a rejection of the violation and destruction of the Christian monuments, such as churches, monasteries and cemeteries in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Jaffa and other cities . 

Today, Al-Azhar calls for holding its twelfth conference after thirty years of the last conference held about the Palestinian issue and the Muslim and Christian sanctities. Despite the participation of Eastern and Western bright-minded people who have clear consciences, the conference is not expected to add new facts rather than what has already been stated and written with regard to this issue and its related scientific, historical and political dimensions. However, it is enough that this conference rings the alarm, reenergizes the resolution and determination and confirms the unanimity of the Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and intellectuals of the world. They are all united concerning the necessity of resisting the barbaric Zionist corruption during the 21st century which is supported by international agendas of other parties. Such parties do tremble with fear if they think about deviating from the plots of the Zionist entity and the Zionist policies. 

I am firmly convinced, as theologians say, that any occupation will inevitably come to an end even though it might seem impossible at the present time. Indeed, days are changeable and the fate of the oppressor is predictable and confirmed, no matter how long waited for it may be. Let us recall the history of Rome in the East, the Persians in the East of the Arabian Peninsula, the Crusades that comfortably stayed for two hundred years in Palestine. You can also ask the countries that were always proud of the fact that the sun never set on their settlements, or the European colonization which finally left Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, India, Indonesia and Somalia. Ask them all to realize that disappearance is the inevitable fate of the oppressors, and that any authoritarian power, according to Ibn Khaldoun, is destined to become deteriorated. This is a universal truth and a divine law, and having doubts about it will be deemed "contempt for knowledge, reasoning and reflection".  

This fact is conjoined with another one that precedes it, i.e. the possession of the strength which terrifies the enemy and obliges it to consider carefully before implementing its absurdity, tyranny, and authoritarianism. However, Allah knows that we are promoters of peace which is based on justice, mutual respect and fulfillment of the rights, excluding the intention for any purchase or bargaining. Our peace does not involve humiliation, submissiveness or compromising a tiny part of the homelands or the sacred places; rather it is supported by the power of knowledge, education, economy, market control and armament that is capable to powerfully face any attack and deter any one who tries to harm the people and the land.

If our fate is to live currently with an intruding enemy who understands only the language of power, then we have no excuse before Allah or history, for being weak, defeatist or humble while we have all the factors of power and its material and human resources.

I am one of those who believe that the Zionist entity is not the reason behind our defeat in 1948, 1967, or in any other war and clash. Rather we have made our defeat because of the underestimation and short vision regarding the imminent risks, and adopting carelessness when the necessity required seriousness. Indeed, a nation that has a conflicting and torn up identity cannot stand against an entity that fights with a rooted doctrine and under a united flag. It is then impossible to defeat it or bring down its flag: Almighty Allah says, "Do not contend against one another, that you might not be disheartened or your vigor goes away." (Qu'ran: 8: 46) 

Distinguished Attendees

I am completely aware that my speech will not achieve new results and that it is emitting from a source packed with sorrow and pain. I am also recognizing the fact that its impact will not exceed that of the speeches delivered by the great scholars of politics, science, thought and media throughout seventy years. They cannot change reality, put an end to greediness, or stop blood shedding, sufferings and pains to which the Palestinian people, youth, women and children, have been exposed. Such Palestinian hardships have also been witnessed in prisons while unrelenting resistance and hard determination of the Palestinian people have never weakened or faded away.

Indeed, this may be said about my speech or our conference. However, I think that you agree with me that today's conference is very different from the preceding ones because it is held under circumstances similar to that of clouds pregnant with hurricanes. Furthermore, the countdown is actually started to divide and split the Arab region and to place the Zionist entity as the commander of the whole region whose orders should be strictly obeyed. If we consider the conspiracies plotted against our homeland on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea and the east of the Mediterranean and its extensions in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, we will recognize how dangerous. Repetition of speeches and rumination of slogans are no longer appropriate for the conspiracies plotted against us. In fact, the next generations would curse us and our descendants be ashamed to call us their parents or grandparents if we followed the same traditional ways used throughout seven decades to counter these fatal conspiracies. 

My predicted hope is that our conference will achieve untraditional and practical results for which the efforts are invested even though they sound so little or insignificant. The top and utmost result that I hope to be achieved is increasing the awareness of the Palestinian cause in general and Jerusalem in particular. The harsh reality is that the curricula in all our educational stages have failed to create any form of awareness of such cause for millions of Arab and Muslim youth.  There is no a curriculum devoted to illustrate the danger of the Palestinian cause, its history, its position at the present or in the future and its impacts on the future of our youth who are supposed to bear the flag of the defense for Palestine, without even knowing any significant facts about the cause. 

On the other hand, the Israeli youth is supported, from their earliest age, with educational curricula, chants and supplications which contribute in forming their hostile conscience and feeding their racism and hatred against all the Arabs and Muslims. Likewise, our mass media hardly present anything significant apart from a piece of news or a monotonous report on the Palestinian cause whose effect will fade away once the report is ended or the speaker moves to another piece of news. 

The second proposal is that the unjust decision of the American president, which is rejected by more than 128 countries and denied by all the peace lovers around the globe, should be confronted with new Arab and Islamic thought that focuses on affirming the Arabism of Jerusalem, inviolability of Muslim and Christian sanctities and their real belonging. This affirmation should be transformed into a local and international culture for which the capabilities of the Arab and Muslim media should be harnessed. It is worth mentioning that our enemy succeeded in harnessing the mass media, while we failed to do so.

We must not hesitate to deal with the Palestinian cause from religious Islamic or Christian prospective. I am so surprised by the marginalization of the religious aspect of the Palestinian cause. Meanwhile, all the claims of the Zionist entity are purely religious and they do not hide them or feel ashamed as to this respect. In fact, the Zionist entity has no justification to usurp the land, which does not recognize it, other than being obsessed with religious texts and myths that attempt to legalize aggression and justify blood shedding, and violating both chastity and properties of people. Moreover, the modern Zionist Christians, supporting that entity, depend on nothing more than false religious interpretations strongly rejected by church clergymen and Christian scholars, Jewish rabbis and monks. 

A proposal that I present to you to consider is making 2018 the year of Jerusalem. During this year, we can work on increasing the awareness about Jerusalem, providing financial and morale support to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, organizing regular informative and cultural activities to be sponsored by official organizations such as the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, religious institutions, Arab and Muslim universities and civil society organizations, etc.

In the end, I call upon the elites of the nation to pay heed to the fact that our enemies are plotting conspiracies against the Nation's religion, identity, educational curricula, unity and co-existence. The Nation must rely on its resources and regain trust in Allah and in its own capabilities. It should no longer rely on promises of foreign oppressors who turned their back to us and trespassed all the red lines. Allah Almighty says, "Do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the Fire, Otherwise, you would not have any protector apart from Allah; then you would not be any helped." (Qur’ān, 11:113)

Thank you for good listening.

Peace and blessing be upon you.