Mustafa El-Feki* reflects on the enlightening message Iran's former president delivered in the name of tolerance during his recent visit to the bastion of Islam, Al-Azhar The visit couldn't have been more appropriately timed. Storm clouds are gathering, internal strife threatens, and the ogre of sectarianism is rearing its ugly head over the Arab and Islamic worlds. Moved by these dismal spectres, Egypt's Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs extended an invitation to former Iranian President Mohamed Khatami -- reputed for his ideological moderation, religious temperateness and international standing -- to attend the council's annual convention in Cairo. In addition to a huge assembly of Muslim ulema from around the world, prominent Christian leaders, most notably Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of Egyptian Copts who form the largest Christian community in the Middle East, would also attend the convention. When Khatami arrived, sporting his familiar benevolent smile, I was determined to cover his stay and engage an interview with him, inspired as I was by this man who blends spiritual with political leadership and whose term as Iranian president was marked by a fresh breath of relative leniency at home and openness abroad. When I visited Tehran several years ago as Egypt's representative to a packed international conference in support of the Palestinian Intifada, I had several meetings with then vice- president Mohamed Ali Abtahi, who took the opportunity of each meeting to reassure me that Khatami placed the highest priority on improving his country's relations with the Arab world and with Egypt in particular. During my visit, I was struck by the fact that most of the information we receive on Iran is gravely distorted and selected to portray a false image, not only of the revolutionary regime but of conditions in Iran in general. Iranian women participated as full and respected peers in the conference roundtables and I noted that Christian and Jewish minorities enjoyed a freedom I had not anticipated. In addition, Iran possesses the largest cinema industry in Asia after India and it has one of the largest, best-organised and most successful family planning programmes in the region. Such observations confirmed my conviction that it was important to study Iran first hand, instead of relying on secondary or tertiary sources. As early as 1988, in a speech I delivered during the inaugural ceremonies of the cultural season in Qatar, held in the Jisra Club in Doha and widely attended by intellectuals from the Gulf, I urged that Iran should be brought onboard as an ally to joint Arab action, rather than regarded as an adversary or a burden. I was therefore all the more deeply disturbed by all the play being given, at the outset of 2007, to the so-called Shia-Sunni conflict, as though 14 centuries were not enough to mend the fissures of the second half of the seventh century, and as though Egypt and other Islamic countries had not opened their arms to the descendants of the Prophet's house, fleeing from the Ummayid swords after the martyrdom of Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein, and as though the Egyptian people, in particular, had not evolved an almost innate understanding of Shia heritage ever since the Fatimid Dynasty founded Cairo and established Al-Azhar as the bastion of Shia evangelism in North Africa, an understanding expressed to this day by the passion of Egyptians for visiting the tombs of the descendants of the Prophet and their celebration of Ashoura (The Day of Atonement). These were among the thoughts and reminisces that occurred to me as I listened to the former Iranian president's presentation in Al-Azhar to an audience that consisted of the grand mufti, senior religious officials, Islamic scholars and students. Making this occasion even more poignant was that the convention was held in the hall dedicated to the great religious reformer, Sheikh Mohamed Abdu. I also had the honour to attend a smaller discussion circle that included, in addition to Khatami, the director of the Bureau for Safeguarding the Iranian Constitution and Ayatollah Ali Taskhiri, the Iranian official in charge of promoting closer relations between Islamic sects and denominations. Discussions, conducted in Arabic most of the time and with the aid of a Persian-Arabic translator some of the time. The participation of the former Iranian president in the conference and the conference itself were highly significant in view of the current international and regional backdrop. It is still too early to tell the extent to which these events will have an impact on that climate, but I do have several general observations. First, promoting closer relations between Islamic denominations and between the Sunna and Shia in particular has long been a chief concern of religious officials in both Egypt and Iran. In the 1940s, an office dedicated to this purpose was founded in Cairo. Headed by the then rector of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Abdel-Maguid Salim, it counted among its major contributors Sheikh Mohamed Taqi Al-Qomi from Iran and Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Eissa from Egypt. The persistent and dedicated efforts of these men, and many equally enlightened Sunni and Shia theologians, were crowned by the fatwa issued by the late Mufti of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltout according equal value to Sunni jurisprudence and the jurisprudence of the Shia "Twelvers". Since that fatwa, issued nearly half a century ago, Shia jurisprudence has entered the Al-Azhar curriculum on equal footing and with the same reverence accorded to the other branches of Islamic jurisprudence. Second, the tragic events in Iraq, especially since the end of the confrontation between Hizbullah and Israel in Lebanon in 2006, have been increasingly engineered by a major conspiracy to fracture the unity of the Muslim people by igniting sectarian strife between the Sunna and Shia of Iraq. The contagion quickly overflowed Iraqi borders, erupting in inflammatory extremist remarks from both sides, remarks that cannot possibly serve any ends but those of the US and Israel and their allies at home and abroad. I was very impressed by Khatami's appeal, from the podium at Al-Azhar, to all Muslims to overcome their petty differences, thereby nipping the conspiracy in the bud. He was absolutely correct when he observed that political despotism and tyranny has always been alien to the true spirit of Islam. It was in this context that he called upon Al-Azhar to resume its spiritual leadership of the Muslim people and its role as protector of their religious, cultural and linguistic heritage. His tribute to the venerable religious institution was received with great appreciation and interest. Third, the former Iranian president is also a famed advocator of intercultural understanding. During his presidency, he declared 2001 the "Year of the Dialogue of Civilisations". It was therefore not surprising that his appeal, above, would be accompanied by a tangential plea to the Muslim world to go beyond all forms of cultural chauvinism and to regard it as a religious duty to shun extremism, fanaticism and unwarranted intransigence. In short, his was a powerful message of tolerance, open-mindedness and universal peaceful coexistence. Fourth, in the small discussion circle, Khatami addressed the question of political and religious rhetoric. For instance, he said that Holocaust denial served no end other than to create more trouble for us than we already have. Indeed, he said, there is no reason why we should not acknowledge the tragedy the Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Germany, to which we could add that Israel is in the process of perpetrating another type of "holocaust" against the Palestinians and Arabs. I suggested that the massacre of Egyptian prisoners after ceasefires in the wars of 1956 and 1967 confirmed that. The former Iranian president received my comments with his customary affability and expressed his desire for more of such interchanges in the future. Fifth, the significance of Khatami's visit to Egypt at this time was underscored by his invitation, upon his arrival, to a working breakfast with President Hosni Mubarak. It was also heartening, against the backdrop of these troubled times, to hear former deputy rector of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour observe that less than five per cent of Islamic jurists were concerned with the theological differences between Shia and Sunni Islam. He further stressed that Shia and Sunni Muslims shared the same belief in one god, the message of the Prophet Mohammed and the Quran, and that they practiced the same five fundamental pillars of Islam. There was, therefore, absolutely no justification whatsoever for the sectarian hostilities that the West was trying to ignite in this already volatile region. Former President Khatami was of like mind. Commenting on Sheikh Ashour's remarks, he said that it was his wish that Shia and Sunni Muslims would pray together in the same mosques, which were houses of God meant for the assembly of all Muslims without distinction. He added that when he was performing Friday prayers in the mosque in Washington during his recent visit to the US, it disturbed him to discover that the Shia were praying somewhere else. The religious and political significance of Khatami's presence in Egypt at the convention hosted by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs is unmistakable. His was an important plea for unity between Muslims and Arabs in the face of the spectres of domestic upheaval and foreign threats. But it was simultaneously an exhortation to allow the enlightened, humanitarian spirit of Islam prevail over the forces of intolerance, prejudice and hatred. * The writer is chairman of the People's Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee.
