Al Azhar rejects jihadist claim that other Muslims are 'infidels'
December 15, 2014
Terrorists should be condemned, but not labelled as “infidels,” Egypt’s Al Azhar University has proclaimed.
Al Azhar, the most influential institution in the world of Sunni Islam, hosted a conference earlier this month in which participants issued a strong condemnation of terrorism and cautioned against extremist political interpretations of Islam. Among the jihadist beliefs that Al Azhar denounced was the claim—put forward by groups like the Islamic State—that Muslims who do not accept the jihadist interpretation of the Qu’ran are infidels.
Al Azhar rejected that claim, the Fides news service notes. The Cairo-based institution added: “It is one of the tenets of Islam that only when one denied the shadada [the fundamental Islamic statement of belief that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet] that somebody can be said to be an apostate.”
Coptic Catholic Bishop Anba Antonios Aziz Mina of Guizeh expressed support for the statement by Al Azhar. “Those who commit acts of terrorism are terrorists and must be condemned as terrorists,” he said. “Labelling them as atheists of infidels may also become a ploy to hide the real problem.”
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