Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb has said he would visit US-occupied Iraq only if he received a joint invitation from both Sunni and Shia officials.
“I will only go if I receive a joint invitation from both of them,” he said.
El-Tayeb recently received two separate invitations to visit Iraq from both Iraqi Shia Endowments Director Saleh el-Haydari and his Iraqi Sunni counterpart.
According to Al-Azhar spokesman Mohamed el-Tantawi, Al-Azhar was keen to promote the unity of Iraq, which, he said, represented the sole means of helping the country overcome its current political crisis. “We stand against discrimination between the children of the same homeland,” he said.
“Al-Azhar strives to eliminate differences between Islamic denominations so that the Islamic nation can take on the challenges it currently faces,” el-Tantawi added.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
