Anglican Communion-Al Azhar Al Sherif Interfaith Dialogue
— Dec. 10, 201210 déc. 2012
The following is the communiqué from the recent meeting of the Anglican Communion-Al Azhar Al Sherif Interfaith Dialogue. A PDF of the communiqué in English and Arabic is available here
The dialogue committee composed of a delegation from the Anglican Communion and from Al Azhar Al Sherif held its 10th Annual meeting in Cairo on 20 November 2012 corresponding to 6 Moharram 1434. This meeting was held under the auspices of the agreement signed between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar on 30 January 2002 at Lambeth Palace, London, UK. These annual meetings aimed to promote cooperation and understanding between Christianity and Islam.
The delegation from Al Azhar Al Sherif was comprised of:
Dr. Hamdy Zagzouk, Chairman of the Beit el Aila
Professor Dr Mahmoud Azab, Advisor for the Grand Imam for Interfaith Dialogue
Professor Dr Mohammed Shama, Professor of Islamic Sciences in German at Al Azhar University
Dr Bakr Zaki, Head of the Faculty of Islam at Al Azhar University
Sheikh Dr Mohammed Gammeah, Media Representative of Al Azhar
The Anglican delegation was comprised of:
The Most Revd Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis, Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Bishop of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
The Most Revd Datuk Bolly Lapok, Archbishop of South East Asia
Dr. Yvonne Haddad, Professor of the History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Georgetown University
The Revd Dr Toby Howarth, Assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury for Interfaith Dialogues
The Revd Rana Khan, Assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury for Interfaith Dialogues
Ms Sue Parks, Anglican Communion Office, NIFCON (staff)
His Eminence Dr Ahmed el Tayyib, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, welcomed the dialogue committee. It was noted that this was the first meeting of the dialogue committee since the January 2011 Revolution in Egypt. It was also noted that the dialogue in London in 2011 had been curtailed due to the political situation in Egypt which had required the Grand Imam to be present in Egypt.
In his opening remarks, The Grand Imam quoted the teaching of the Holy Qu’ran which requires all peoples to work together to understand and appreciate difference, whether of language, creed or race, and to work together for the cause of justice, peace and the well-being of all on earth.
The two co-chairs, Dr. Hamdy Zagzouk and Bishop Mouneer Hanna Anis, opened the meeting with readings from the Qu’ran and the Bible, respectively and reaffirmed the importance of this dialogue between Muslims and Christians. The dialogue committee praised the al-Azhar Declaration on the Future of Egypt which promotes the need to guarantee the rights and responsibilities of all citizens. The document outlines that in accepting the rights of citizenship, the citizen also accepts the responsibility to share in the development of society and to work for peace and the welfare of all.
The dialogue committee expressed its condolences to all those whose loved ones were killed or injured in the train crash, recalling, in particular, the children killed who were from Al Azhar school in Assuit.
The dialogue committee commended the Grand Imam for establishing “Beit el Aila” for the promotion of national unity in Egypt. The dialogue committee also expressed its appreciation for the UK Christian Muslim Forum initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK.
The Anglican delegation presented a paper on the understanding of “Citizenship in Christianity”. Although the context of our meeting was Egypt, the conversation was enriched by hearing of positive experiences in Muslim-Christian relationships in many other parts of the world, including Pakistan, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. The paper was accepted with great appreciation.
The delegation from Al Azhar presented two papers on the understanding of “Citizenship in Islam” and another on ‘Building Citizenship’. Dr Mahmoud Azab spoke about citizenship in Islam, in particular, the al-Azhar Declaration on the Future of Egypt with its three principles:
to institute a democratic, constitutional and modern state
to accept a democratic system
to be committed to a basic system of freedom. These freedoms are belief, expression, academic research and creativity in art and literature.
Dr. Mohammed Shamma presented a paper on ’Islam and Secularism’ in which he outlined three main themes: secularism, absolutism and relativism, and citizenship.
The two papers were heard with great appreciation and were discussed in depth. Our discussion identified the gap between the teaching of religion and the practice of religion.
We rejoiced that our dialogue was done in the spirit of wisdom, with the intention to affirm the values of truth, justice, knowledge, progress, peace, and to affirm the principles of citizenship and to raise the nation to achieve welfare for all.
The members of the dialogue committee agreed to meet in Autumn 2013 in the UK.