Today, Thursday, at the Headquarters of Al-Azhar, H.E. Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif, received Ambassador Raja Abdel Khaleq El-Wakil, the new Egyptian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, to discuss ways to boost Al-Azhar’s support for the Beninese. The Grand Imam confirmed Al-Azhar’s readiness to increase scholarships for Beninese students, currently 8 scholarships annually, and to direct the bulk of these scholarships to the study of medicine, pharmacy, engineering, and agriculture. This, the Grand Imam maintained, is meant to serve the genuine requirements of Beninese society and meet its needs. He added that Al-Azhar is also ready to receive Beninese imams and to be sponsored by Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif for training at Al-Azhar International Academy for the Training of Imams and Preachers and enhancing their preaching skills and their ability to refute the ideologies of extremist groups.

The Grand Imam asserted that Al-Azhar is ready to establish, with its fund, an Arabic Language Center in Benin and provide it with Azharite teachers and specialists in the different Arabic language disciplines. Al-Azhar does so, he noted, in its capacity as the institution that undertakes the dissemination of Arabic and religious sciences around the world.

For her part, Ambassador El-Wakil expressed her pleasure to meet with the Grand Imam and her appreciation for Al-Azhar’s considerable efforts in the service of the African peoples and in supporting them in the different Da’wah, educational and relief fields. She asserted that she will handle the file of international students at Al-Azhar and facilitate their enrollment in it.