Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb on Monday met with the the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, where they sat down to discuss the most important global issues of common concern.
Tayyed said that he fears the west is trying to use “freedoms” as an excuse to impose its western values on other cultures, such as the normalization of homosexuality through media.
“There must put an end to this renewed form of colonialism, which is intellectual and cultural colonialism,” Tayyeb stressed.
The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar continued that the world today is in dire need of religion, which some are trying to muffle and exclude from people’s lives.
Tayyed warned that a materialistic viewpoint places human desire above all else, and only leads to more conflict and bloodshed.
Muslims in particular cherish religion and its morals as a vital part of their identity, he added.
Tayyeb said that freedom of expression cannot be used to offend others and defile their sacred beliefs.
The Danish Prime Minister affirmed her country’s keenness to guarantee the right to difference, and that it pays great attention to consolidating communication between east and west and deepening friendship between eastern and western peoples.
