Speaking before a delegation from Britain’s Royal College of Defence Studies, headed by Major General Stephen Deakin, and representatives from eleven other countries, on May 25th in Cairo, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al Azhar, declared that “terrorism is a political, not a religious, manifestation.” Moreover, “terrorism was created by various Western political regimes that spread it around the world, attaching it to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in order to achieve complex gains and agendas.”
FrontpageMag – Raymond Ibrahim Most recently, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb was invited to the Vatican and warmly embraced by Pope Francis. Al Azhar had angrily cut off all ties with the Vatican five years earlier when, in the words of U.S. News, former Pope Benedict “had demanded greater protection for Christians in Egypt after a New Year’s bombing on a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria killed 21 people. Since then, Islamic attacks on Christians in the region have only increased.”
A 2013 survey named Tayeb the “most influential Muslim in the world.” He is also regularly described by Western media and academia as a “moderate.” Georgetown University presents him as “a strong proponent of interfaith dialogue.” According to The National, “He is considered to be one of the most moderate and enlightened Sunni clerics in Egypt.” In February 2015, the Wall Street Journal praised him for making “one of the most sweeping calls yet for educational reform in the Muslim world to combat the escalation of extremist violence.”
Pope Francis referenced his meeting with Tayeb as proof that Muslims are peaceful: “I had a long conversation with the imam, the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar University, and I know how they [Muslims] think. They seek peace, encounter.”
Here, once again, is a shameless lie that the ‘West invented terrorism,’ by who many consider to be the world’s most influential Muslim authority.
Islam’s sacred texts must first have been amenable to the use of terrorism; and so it is, with Allah himself constantly employing that word and its conjugates (r-h-b) throughout the Koran, both saying that he will and calling on his followers to strike “terror” into the hearts of those who reject Islam (e.g., 8:12, 59:2).
True to such scriptural injunctions, the history of Islam’s relations with other religions and civilizations has also been one of nonstop terroristic assaults and conquests—in a word, jihad; the heart of the Muslim world, MENA (Middle East and North Africa) was originally Christian until it was literally terrorized into becoming Islamic.
Hence why Islam and Muslims continue to claim the lion’s share of terrorism around the world today, despite al-Tayeb’s attempt to conflate “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” together, as if an equal share of terrorism is committed by all three groups.
To those familiar with al-Tayeb, such deceptions are old hat. Just last month he claimed that the aforementioned Muslim conquests of Christian MENA “were not conquests of colonization that rely on the methods of plunder, oppression, control, and the policies of domination and dependency,” even though both Christian and Muslim sources make perfectly clear that they were. Rather, the grand imam insisted that these jihads were about bringing “knowledge, justice, freedom, and equality” to conquered Christians.
And of course, Pope Francis, in his misguided attempt to bond with this imam, posing as a Western-style liberal thinking cleric, never challenges al-Tayeb’s well-publicized radical beliefs.
It is when speaking to Western audiences, however, that the sheikh truly shines. For example, back in 2016, al-Tayeb was invited to speak before the German parliament. In response, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies issued a statement deplored how, “before the German parliament, Sheikh al-Tayeb made unequivocally clear that religious freedom is guaranteed by the Koran, while in Cairo he makes the exact opposite claims.”
Indeed, just days before traveling to Germany, al-Tayeb had appeared on Egyptian television promoting those sets of laws most antithetical to religious freedom: Islam’s apostasy laws—sharia laws which punish, including with death, those Muslims who dare leave Islam or convert to another Islam.
Or, in the words of the Cairo-based human rights institute, “Al Azhar adopts two contradictory speeches: one is open and directed externally [to the West, etc.], while the other supports violent extremism, and is directed internally [in Egypt and the Arabic speaking Muslim world].” The statement continues:
Combating terrorism and radical religious ideologies will not be accomplished by directing at the West and its international institutions religious dialogues that are open, support international peace and respect freedoms and rights, while internally promoting ideas that contribute to the dissemination of violent extremism through the media and educational curricula of Al Azhar and the mosques.
In the end, it is, of course, not surprising that Sheikh al-Tayeb, whose loyalty is to Islam, is a subterfuge artist. What is surprising, or rather deplorable, is that so many Western leaders, including now the Royal College of Defence Studies—which “instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces”—continue to compromise themselves by giving a platform and listening to a proven liar.
Tayeb added what all Muslims know: “Those learned in Islamic law [al-fuqaha] and the imams of the four schools of jurisprudence consider apostasy a crime and agree that the apostate must either renounce his apostasy or else be killed.” He even cited a hadith, or tradition, of Islam’s prophet Muhammad calling for the execution of Muslims who quit Islam.
At any rate, if Tayeb holds such draconian views on apostasy from Islam—that is, when he’s speaking in Arabic to fellow Muslims—what is his position concerning the Islamic State? Last December, Tayeb was asked why Al Azhar refuses to issue a formal statement denouncing the genocidal terrorist organization as lapsing into a state of kufr, that is, of becoming un-Islamic, or “infidel.” Tayeb responded:
Al Azhar cannot accuse any [Muslim] of being a kafir [infidel], as long as he believes in Allah and the Last Day—even if he commits every atrocity…. I cannot denounce ISIS as un-Islamic, but I can say that they cause corruption on earth.
Meanwhile, when speaking to Western and non-Muslim audiences, as he did during his recent European tour, Tayeb tells them what they want to hear. Speaking before an international forum he asserted that “The Quran states that there is no compulsion in religion,” and that “attempts to force people into a religion are against the will of God.” Similarly, when meeting with the Italian Senate’s Foreign Policy Commission Pier Ferdinando Casini and his accompanying delegation, Tayeb “asserted that Islam is the religion of peace, cooperation and mercy…. Islam believes in freedom of expression and human rights, and recognizes the rights of all human beings.”
The Examiner says
Islamic terrorism is a creation of the Muslim religion called Islam. The West did not create Islamic terrorism. The Koran created Islamic terrorism with its horrible, monstrous passages of brutality, mayhem, and death against Non Muslims. Apparently, Pope Francis is ignorant of such Koranic verses.
Hartmut says
Kick Francis’ butt and reinstall his predecessor Benedikt.
BareNakedIslam says
I believe they forced Benedict out because of his negative views about Islam and Muslims.
Reader says
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64ff6d8cbd637bb76b9ede92aed8ca122a2c20d6f1a6dedcb5be07d077e40512.jpg
Linda Rivera says
The FALSE PROPHET POPE:
In New York, Pope Francis Embraced Chrislam And Laid A Foundation For A One World Religion”,
In addition to the United Nations One World Government, there will also be a One World Religion.
2,000 years ago, the Bible warned in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, that all who join the SATANIC One World Religion and take the Mark of the Beast on their hand or forehead will spend all of Eternity in FIERY HELL.
The god of the One World Religion is SATAN.
Without that Mark, people will be unable to buy or sell anything. Under no circumstances take the Mark. Eternity is forever! God doesn’t want you to spend all of eternity in Hell!
Throughout the O.T. and N.T. Bible, the HOLY ONE, our Precious Creator, our Merciful, Almighty God, Pure, Holy and Absolutely Good, calls men and women, boys and girls to repent of their sins and turn to Him.
Amazing Grace – Best Version By Far!
Abdul says
I wonder what Jesus would have said to them, considering how Jesus talk to the Pharisees
Condor 18 says
Islamic terrorism is a direct result of our mere existence. Conversion by preaching or the sword is their only goal
ME Infidel says
The Marxist apologist for Islam is the primary reason I left the Catholic Church. Catholic Charities is the second reason.
BareNakedIslam says
I hear rumors that Francis is about to resign. But they could replace him with someone even worse.
FaithfulServantsOfChristKJV says
The ironic thing is that Pope Francis would have been accused of heresy by his own Church if he did this back in the Middle Ages.
This is what previous Popes had said about Islam.
“On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those ENEMY´S WORDS Christians and to destroy that vile race (Muslims) from the lands of our friends.” – Pope Urban II
“extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet [Islam] in the East;” – Pope Callixtus III
“very many from the abominable sect of Mahomet (Islam) will be converted to the Catholic faith” – Pope Eugene IV.
Grant B says
Well…I suppose technically this might be true. After all, the “West” has hated muzlims since at least 636AD.
Pray Hard says
Nobody would give a damn about moslems if moslems weren’t in our faces 24/7/365/1,400 …