CAIRO: After Wikileaks cables on the Saudi Foreign Ministry purported that Al-Azhar requested Riyadh’s opinion on a meeting pressured for by Tehran on rapprochement between Sunnis and Shiites, Al-Azhar stated Sunday it “does not receive any guidance from any entity or state.”
Al-Azhar is an independent institution whose stances are based on its own religious principles, Al Azhar’s undersecretary Abbas Shouman said in press statements Sunday at Al-Azhar’s headquarters in Cairo.
“However, [Al-Azhar] coordinates with Islamic countries over Islam-related issues in order to avoid issuing opinions unsuitable in other countries in the Islamic world; despite Al-Azhar’s internationality, it refuses to be the custodian of a person, a group or a state,” he added.
On Saturday, Wikileaks published a 2011 Saudi Foreign Ministry document, signed by former Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal and addressing late King Abdullah, claiming that Al Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb informed the Saudi ambassador to Cairo that Iranians are pressuring for a meeting with him to discuss a possible convergence of the two Islamic sects.
Shouman explained that regardless whether statement is authentic, Al Azhar has often called on Islamic preachers from the entire world to discuss issues of concern to Muslims, as well as the conditions of religious minorities in Islamic countries.
He cited an international conference held in Cairo in December 2014, which was attended by Shiites and Christians, including representatives from oriental churches, Lebanese sects and Egyptian churches.
For its part, the Saudi Foreign Ministry tweeted Friday “dear conscientious citizen: Avoid accessing any website to obtain leaked documents or information that may be incorrect, with the purpose of harming the security of the homeland.”
Courtesy of The official Twitter account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia