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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

CHURCH: Egypt’s Christians come to defense of Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

Egypt's Christians come to defense of Grand Imam of Al-Azhar

CWN - August 28, 2013

        
     
The Council of Christian Churches in Egypt has come to the defense of Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar and president of al-Azhar University, the world's leading center of Sunni Muslim learning.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey blasted el-Tayeb for supporting the ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi--an ouster also backed by several Christian prelates.

"That scholar is finished," said Erdogan, according to a report in Today's Zaman, a Turkish newspaper. "History will curse men like him, as history cursed similar scholars in Turkey before."

Father Bishoy Helmy, the Coptic Orthodox priest who serves as secretary general of the Council of Christian Churches in Egypt, paid tribute to "the virtues of the imam and his human stature," the Fides news agency reported.