Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, received a delegation of participants in the conference “From Freedom of Worship to Freedom of Religion and Beliefs” organized by the Italian Embassy with the participation of a representative of Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif and a representative of the Orthodox Church, as well as a number of thinkers, intellectuals and academics.

His Eminence said that the world needs a lot of effort to enhance world peace and coexistence. He stressed his belief that the solution lies in the cooperation of religious leaders, and warned of the negative effects of their being at odds because it makes it impossible for their followers to coexist peacefully.

The Grand Imam added that he and Pope Francis provided a living example of what can be achieved when religious leaders share the same goal, pointing out that from the first meeting with Pope Francis, he realized that he was a man of peace of the highest caliber, which encouraged us to move forward to hold more meetings. This culminated in cosigning the historic human fraternity document (HFD), which was drafted in a humane manner to the extent that no one who reads it can distinguish whether it was written by a Muslim or a Christian. This is a living embodiment of mutual understanding and upholding of the values of humanity and peace.

Members of the delegation were pleased that they met the Grand Imam, expressing their appreciation of his great role in promoting the values of tolerance and coexistence and rejecting hate speech and violence. They praised the historic meeting that brought together His Eminence and His Holiness Pope Francis, which culminated in cosigning the HFD, in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, as an important step on the road to achieving coexistence and world peace.