His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, received, Wednesday morning, at Al-Azhar headquarters, Ambassador Khaled Bahah, the Yemeni Ambassador to Egypt.

 

 

During the meeting, the Grand Imam explained that building a strategy for dealing with extremist thought comes at the forefront of Al-Azhar’s work strategies. He pointed out that Al-Azhar has specialized scientific and academic programs to train imams and preachers from around the world to refute extremist thought and raise their skills in dealing with issues of women's rights in Islam, positive coexistence, and confronting extremism.

 

 

His Eminence added that Al-Azhar provided more than 200 scholarships to the people of Yemen last year, in addition to the 541 Yemeni students (both male and female) currently studying on scholarships; there are also compatriots studying at their own expense. This is a large number which, Al-Azhar hopes, will influence Yemen internally as they who hold the moderate Azhari thought. It helps them participate with their Yemeni brothers and sisters in building the future of their homeland and nation.

 

 

His Eminence stated that the philosophy of Islam is based on achieving unity, brotherhood, and harmony among the various sects of the nation, and that Al-Azhar has taken several steps to reunite the Islamic nation. He called for holding an Islamic-Islamic dialogue that brings together the various components of the Muslim nation, stressing that harmony and consensus at the level of religious leaders and scholars is an important step in achieving the desired unity.

 

 

The Yemeni ambassador, for his part, expressed his happiness for meeting the Grand Imam, and his appreciation for what His Eminence is doing to present the correct image of Islam, and for the scientific and dawah support that al-Azhar provides to the Muslim youth around the world, especially the people of Yemen and Palestine. He added that al-Azhar’s position in support of the Palestinian people and their right to establish their independent state, with al-Quds, as its capital, is appreciated and cherished by both the government and people of Yemen.

 

 

Mr. Bahah added that he wished to begin his duties in Egypt from Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, that intellectual institution that enjoys respect and attention globally, especially from all Muslims. He said that Yemen aims to strengthen cooperation with Al-Azhar to play an important role in spreading moderate thought inside Yemen through establishing Azhari institutes, bringing in Azhari envoys, and intensifying training courses for Yemeni imams and preachers at Al-Azhar Global Academy for Training Imams, Preachers, and Fatwa Researchers.