Tourki, Pope Shenouda, Tantawi Address 14th Islamic Conference inauguration
Egypt, Religion, 5/21/2002

Egyptian Secretary General of the Islamic World League Abdullah Bin Abdel Mohsen Al Tourki addressed the inaugural session of the 14th Islamic Conference on Monday.

Tourki said it is the duty of all Muslims to correct the distorted image of Islam, referring to Zionist acts against Muslims and their various pretexts to fight them.

He asserts that Muslims around the world should exert all efforts to have the religion of Islam properly understood.

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark Diocese delivered an address during the inaugural session.

Pope Shenouda said he wondered how could anyone relate Islam to terrorism, referring to certain verses of the Quran that state that peace is one of the names of Allah.

He expressed rejection of the campaign against Islam because of a certain incident. The mistakes of one group should not relate to an entire religion.

He said that one should distinguish between the true Muslim and those who just carry Muslim names.

Although there is a strong belief that defending religion is the obligation of every person, yet before dealing with conclusions, we have to deal with the reasons while tackling the issue of the campaign against Islam, he added.

He asserted the need to project the true image of Islam that some has married.

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi in his address said there are certain steadfast facts in Islam that can never be changed, namely belief in Allah and the fact that all people were created from one father and one mother.

All religions aim at attaining an objective and our objective in life is to get to know each other, he said.

He asserted the importance of getting to know other people's ideas and opinions, saying this is for the benefit of all humanity.

The basic objectives of the creation of mankind is to get to know each other, once it is based on true benefit of humanity, he emphasized.

Differences among people in their beliefs do not prevent them from realizing cooperiaotn with each other, he added.

He reiterated that life is a battle about virtue and between right and wrong. In such battle those who are good will be victorious, pointing out that Islam extends a hand of peace to those who extend their hand of peace, he said.

Previous Stories:
  Pope: Egypt's Church rejects attacks on Islamic, Christian sanctities   (5/16/2002)
  Zionist Christianity is American heresy   (5/11/2002)
  Mubarak addresses conference of Islamic Research Academy   (4/16/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search