Patriarchate welcomes Al-Azhar’s promotion of a more moderate Islam

June 02, 2015

The efforts of the influential Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo to promote a more moderate Islam are “commendable,” according to an analysis published on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Sunni scholars gathered at Al-Azhar at the end of May and are drafting a document intended to promote a more moderate “renewal” within Islam.

“Many terrorist groups, spread nowadays almost everywhere, give since some years a dark image of Islam all over the world,” according to the analysis on the patriarchate’s website. “An appeal to such a ‘renewal’ is commendable; it is an attempt to raise the voices of those who believe in a moderate Islam.”

The analysis cautioned, however, that one does not know “how this document could be applied in a vast and diversified Muslim world, where there is no genuine central authority, without forgetting the schism, almost unbridgeable, between Sunnis and Shiites.”

 

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Further information:

• Al Azhar stands against fundamentalist Islam: “the renewal is approved by Islam” (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
• Special Report: Egypt deploys scholars to teach moderate Islam, but skepticism abounds (Reuters)