Grand Imam of Al-Azhar: “Insulting the Prophet is an explicit invitation to hatred and violence and a crime against humanity”.
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, condemned the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s re-publishing of cartoons offensive to our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the emergence of some Western voices that justify insulting the prophets regarded as freedom of opinion and expression. The Grand Imam, on his official Facebook and Twitter pages, posted in Arabic, English and French: “Our Prophet (pbuh) is more precious to us than ourselves, and smearing his noble honor is not freedom of opinion, but an explicit invitation to hatred and violence, as well as a break from all human and civilized values.” The Grand Imam stressed in his post that “justification for this act under the pretext of protecting freedom of expression is a misunderstanding of the difference between the human right to freedom and the crime against humanity in the name of protecting freedoms.”