Wed 21 October 2020:
The grand imam of Al-Azhar condemned the beheading of a French teacher but said insulting religions in the name of free speech was an “invitation to hatred,” in a speech read out on Tuesday.
They had come together to sign a joint call for peace.
“As a Muslim and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, I declare that Islam, its teachings and its Prophet are innocent of this wicked terrorist crime,” Tayeb said in his speech, referring to the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty on Friday.
“At the same time, I emphasize that insulting religions and attacking their sacred symbols under the banner of freedom of expression is an intellectual double standard and an open invitation to hatred.”
Paty, 47, was attacked and killed by an 18-year-old Chechen on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris.
He had shown his pupils caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, infuriating one father who led an online campaign against the teacher and was in contact with the killer in the lead-up to the crime, an investigation revealed.
“This terrorist doesn’t speak for the religion of the Prophet Mohammed any more than the terrorist in New Zealand who killed Muslims in the mosque spoke for the religion of Jesus,” Tayeb said in his speech.
Police have arrested 16 people, including a known “Islamist radical” and four members of Anzorov’s family.
