The issue of Gaza and the wars and destruction that have befallen it is the issue that the Arab media machine must focus on day and night.

In fairness, we appreciate the changing positions of European countries toward current events in Gaza, and we salute the awakening of their human conscience, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

Many misleading media images have infiltrated our country through media professionals of our own kind who excelled at spreading a false culture.

Islamophobia is nothing more than a sick illusion from which exaggerations are fabricated to distort Islam’s image.

Journalists must confront the toxic Western media campaigns and save our youth from the factors of alienation and assimilation they carry.

The development of artificial intelligence must be surrounded by a fence of ethical responsibility and professional controls so that it does not turn into a ferocious monster that threatens humanity.

During his speech at the Arab Media Summit, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar recalled the tragedy of Palestinian journalists who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the truth.

The systematic targeting of journalists in Gaza aims to silence the voice of truth and prevent exposing the scandalous image of the atrocities committed by the aggression.

His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, delivered a speech today, Tuesday, at the opening of the Arab Media Summit, hosted by the United Arab Emirates under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and a group of Arab leading media professionals.

In his speech during the opening session of the Arab Media Summit in Dubai, His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, expressed his wishes for the conference organizers and participants to succeed in reaching an applicable joint Arab media strategy. This strategy should be capable of expressing the reality of the nation, its pains and tragedies, and capable of protecting the youth, who are on the verge of falling prey to the digital platforms that control their feelings and emotions. Such platforms work hard to distract the youth from the reality of their nation and from facing its challenges; they even embellish their evil deeds by destroying differences and removing the boundaries between right and wrong in the minds of the youth. Such platforms market false and highly tempting slogans, such as progress, openness, freedom, modernity, rejection of reactionism, obscurantism and backwardness. These slogans have afflicted our countries with a significant number of social diseases that have negatively affected public taste and common sense, and because of them the standards of good and bad, and the scales of right and wrong have been disturbed.

His Eminence the Grand Imam emphasized that Arabs and Muslims have suffered from media reports that distort their image in the West. These media reports have linked Islam to violence, extremism, and the oppression of women, and have falsely and slanderously portrayed it as a "social movement" or "political ideology" that advocates violence, fanaticism, hatred, and rebellion against the global order. The Grand Imam pointed out that the Western media continue to promote such fabrications to this day, citing what the fair-minded Palestinian Christian writer and thinker, Dr. Edward Said, recorded in his famous book, Covering Islam.  Dr. Edward Said describes the Western media's coverage of this religion, which is followed by nearly two billion Muslims in the East and West of the world saying, “Careful research has shown that there is hardly a prime-time television program without several episodes containing racist and derogatory stereotypes of Muslims. Consequently, a single Muslim is considered representative of all Muslims and of Islam in general.”

His Eminence emphasized that many misleading images have infiltrated Arab and Muslim countries, negatively impacting our Arab media discourse. This plan has employed figures from our own kin who have excelled in exporting a false culture that criticizes everything that is Arab in origin or Islamic in thought and direction. This has increased the gravity of current challenges, foremost among which is the widening gap between our contemporary awareness and our heritage, which until recently was one of the strongest sources of our pride, honor, and steadfastness in the face of those who tamper with the past and present of this nation.

Regarding the concerns of those concerned with the affairs of Arabs and Muslims, the Grand Imam said, “I do not think that any just person – in the East or the West – would dispute that the issue that the Arab media machine should revolve around day and night is the issue of Gaza and the aggression and destruction that befell it, and the heinous violations, which the peoples of the world have denied and continue to deny and despise for nineteen consecutive months.” 

The Grand Imam emphasized the increasing importance and historical responsibility placed on the shoulders of the Arab media, and its role in continuously exposing the injustice suffered by the landowners and rightful owners. The Arab media should highlight the steadfastness of this people and their adherence to their land and keep the Palestinian issue a burning flame in the conscience of the peoples of the world, East and West. His Eminence also stressed that it is fair to appreciate and welcome the change we are witnessing today in the positions of many countries of the European Union regarding what has happened and continues to happen in Gaza, and we greatly salute the awakening of their noble human conscience.

His Eminence extended his greetings to the steadfast Arab position in the face of the machine of aggression, seeking an immediate ceasefire, and facilitating the entry of humanitarian and relief aid despite the arrogance of the occupation. He also saluted all the free people of the world who see what is happening as a humanitarian crime that must be stopped immediately. He stressed that we are still awaiting many intensive media efforts to confront the groundless phenomenon known as "Islamophobia" and to address its negative effects in the West, even though it is nothing more than an illusion or a sick imagination from which exaggerations were fabricated to distort the image of Islam.  Islamophobia degrades Islam’s principles that are based on peace and coexistence, and it degrades the established rights that Islam attributes to humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects as well. His Eminence added that we do not know of anything like Islam in the contemporary laws, systems, and policies which are praised by their makers and for which we are criticized. As soon as the catastrophe of the people of Gaza occurred, the cover was exposed, the mask fell, and what is hidden may be way worse.

The Grand Imam added that Western media campaigns did not only distort Islam, its great civilization, and its contribution to enlightening, educating, and advancing humanity, which the Westerners recognize well; they also undertook another mission, which is to undermine the constants of Eastern civilization, its ethical foundations, its human and familial society, and to call for the obliteration of these morals. 

These campaigns have called for personal freedom first, even if that leads to the destruction of the family, changing its form, and replacing it with other systems that destroy children's rights, and permitting what is forbidden by religious laws, and even human taste and customs. They have allowed men to marry men and women to marry women, in addition to justifying atheism and rebellion against the nature of religion. This effort is aimed at drying up all sources of strength and independence, and feelings of pride in the Arab and Islamic personality.  All of this, or part of it, urges us - especially the media professionals – to shoulder the responsibility of confronting these poisonous winds and save our youth and our countries from the factors of alienation, annihilation, and dissolution they carry.

His Eminence also emphasized that the technological developments witnessed in our current era - in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) - must be curbed by ethical responsibility and professional controls. This is to prevent AI from turning into a ferocious monster that threatens all of humanity. The responsibility here falls on experts and legislators, and they alone must protect these technologies from deviating from their proper goals, based on humane principles far removed from the purposes of hegemony, control, and cultural invasion.  The Grand Imam highlighted the initiative to issue a comprehensive document on AI ethics—a project he had launched in collaboration with the late Pope Francis, and which was on the verge of publication before the Pope’s passing. He affirmed that communication with the Vatican would continue in its new era to see the project through to completion

At the end of his speech, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar recalled the tragedy of Palestinian journalists and others who were destined to pay their lives as a price for the truth, and the portrayal of reality without falsification or distortion. More than two hundred media professionals were killed in Gaza, and many others were severely injured. Their limbs were amputated, their homes destroyed, their families lost, or displaced. He emphasized that the systematic targeting of journalists in Gaza aims to silence the voice of truth, hide the clear and scandalous image of the atrocities committed by Zionist aggression, obliterate evidence, mislead justice, and prevent the documentation of crimes committed day and night. From this standpoint, His Eminence called on all those affiliated with the noble profession of media to participate in developing an Arab media strategy that would serve as a shield that protects the truth, safeguards the values of the nation, and preserves its identity.