Cairo confab condemns extremism, terrorism

A three-day conference of religious leaders ended in Cairo, Egypt, penultimate week, with a condemnation of extremism and all forms of terrorism associated with religion.

In its resolutions read in Arabic by Professor Ahmad Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, the conference said all religions denounce terrorism and called on those attributing terrorism to Islam to stop.

The conference stated that it is wrong to attribute the criminal action of some individuals to the religion they profess as no religion encourages violence and terrorism.

It submitted that the preservation of the right of all citizens to dignity is the duty of the state and the right must not be denied based on ethnicity, religion or gender.

It noted that all bad practices condemned by Shari’ah like blasphemy, murder, persecution and unjustifiable killing are frowned at by all religions.

The conference attributed prevalence of violence, extremism and terrorism to ignorance and lack of understanding of the religions.

It, therefore, called for the rehabilitation and resuscitation of all religious cultures and practices in order to engender peace among adherents of the religions.

Earlier, His Holiness, Pope Tawadros ll, Pope of Alexandria, said that extremist ideology and terrorism could be cured through enlightened ideas.

Over 60 papers were delivered at the conference by delegates from 50 countries, including Nigeria, USA, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon and Germany.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar and the Grand Mufti of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim Saleh al-Hussaini, were represented at the conference.