AFP
Cairo
Al Azhar, the highest seat in Sunni Islam, yesterday defended its meeting with France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen as an opportunity to show her the religion’s “true face”.
Al Azhar’s grand imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb, used the surprise meeting on Thursday during a Cairo visit by Le Pen to voice concerns over her party’s “hostile positions towards Islam and Muslims” as reported by the international media.
Tayeb urged the National Front president in their talks at the institution’s Cairo headquarters “to review and correct her positions”, Al Azhar said in a statement on its website.
The tone was harsher than the institution’s initial account of the meeting that stated Al Azhar’s head had called for efforts to counter “Islamophobia in Western countries”.
Abbas Shoman, the imam’s deputy, told AFP that “certain essential points are sometimes omitted in statements and we then correct them”.
“If she had a mistaken understanding of Islam, Al Azhar’s sheikh wanted to show her the true face of Islam,” he said.
Le Pen had acknowledged during the talks that a distinction must be made between the religion and acts of violence committed by those falsely claiming to be acting in the name of Islam, Al Azhar said.
And she had recognised “the right of French Muslims to practise their faith and express it in full freedom”.
Le Pen, who did not wear a veil during the meeting, has tweeted: “Meeting in Cairo with the highest Sunni authority: strong agreement on the fight against extremism.”
Al-Tayeb meets with Le Pen at Al Azhar headquarters in Cairo on Thursday.
