An Ethiopian writer and activist attacked Al-Azhar because of the recent statement issued by the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, on the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, saying that the role of Al-Azhar and its sheikh has ended.
During his arrival as a guest on the (Evening) program on Al Jazeera Mubasher, Noureddine Abda, editor-in-chief of the Niletech Post website, said that the role of Al-Azhar and Al-Tayyib has ended, and that the statement of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar on the Renaissance Dam is primarily a political statement and not a statement expressing a legitimate position.
Al-Jazeera Mubasher Ahmed Taha responded to the guest, saying, “Al-Azhar and its sheikh still maintain a global status and appreciation, and the strongest evidence of this is the hospitality that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar receives wherever he goes or travels.”
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Al-Tayeb issued a statement warning against claiming ownership of some natural resources and tyranny by disposing of them in a way that harms the lives of other countries.
The Grand Mufti of Ethiopia, Haj Omar Idris, criticized the Sheikh of Al-Azhar for the statement, saying that it “lacks realism” and “contradicts Islamic values and is completely rejected in terms of religious principles,” according to the Ethiopian News Agency.
A slave told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the role of Al-Azhar ended when he let the Egyptians die and were led to the gallows, and he did not comment, he said.
It is noteworthy that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar has always strongly expressed positions in which his views were clearly different from the official ruling position.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar issued a statement on the morning of the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda sit-ins on August 14, 2013, following the military coup, in which he warned against the sanctity of bloodshed.
In a speech broadcast at the time on the official television, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar stressed the sanctity of blood and the greatness of its shedding. He had mercy on the dead and offered condolences to their families, announcing his acquittal of all the blood that had been shed, and that he knew nothing of the dispersal procedures except from the media.
For his part, Dr. Abdel-Maqsoud Pasha, a professor at Al-Azhar University, said that the Sheikh of Al-Azhar’s call for the international community came to reach a peaceful solution and to bring the parties together.
The professor at Al-Azhar University said that El-Tayeb issued the statement after ten years of fruitless negotiations and Ethiopian intransigence, as he described it.