Today, Saturday, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb received Dr. Emmanuel Pisani, Director of Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies (IDEO). The Grand Imam stated: “Al-Azhar is keen on scholarly exchange with all academic institutions and organizations around the world to bring mutual benefit in various sciences and disciplines, stressing his great interest in the openness of Al-Azhar students’, especially students of religious faculties like Islamic Theology, Sharia and Law, Arabic Language, etc., towards educational and academic institutions in the West, through academic exchange programs that help achieve the desired goals. HE the Grand Imam maintained that Al-Azhar is an ancient academic institution that enjoys broad acceptance globally as a weighty referential authority and a moderate religious institution with a global message that essentially introduce the proper image of Islam to the world and promote the values of tolerance, coexistence, and dialogue.

 

For his part, the IDEO Director expressed his deep pleasure to meet the Grand Imam, being the major religious figure in the Muslim world, and stressed the IDEO's keenness to cooperate with Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif towards achieving rapprochement, and benefiting from Al-Azhar’s great scholarly expertise.