Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb said that those who dared to commit the crime of burning Mushaf should know that these crimes are "barbaric terrorism" by all standards, deeming it a "hateful racism" that ignites the flames of terror that afflict the East and the West. Posting on his Twitter and Facebook accounts on Tuesday 1/9/2020, Grand Imam At-Tayyeb noted that these despicable crimes fan the flames of hatred, undermine the societies' security and threaten hopes raised by inter-religious and inter-civilizational dialogues. He added that "burning copies of the Glorious Quran inflames the feelings of nearly two billion Muslims around the world. The human history will record these crimes on the pages of shame and guilt." In previous statements, Al-Azhar decried the crimes of burning and ripping apart copies of the Glorious Qur’an in Sweden and Norway by extremists as part of racist protests against Islam and Muslims that has been called for by far-right extremists. For Al-Azhar, these crimes are a reflection of the rising anti-Muslim sentiments and Islamophobia in Western societies.