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Zaqzuq: The Grand Sheikh Of Al-Azhar Avoided Shaking Hands With The Israeli Rabbis, At The "Dialogue of Religions" Conference And Refused To Have A Talk With Perez On one Table.
Tue 07 07 2009 طوال اليوم Published in Almasry Alyoum on 07 - 07 - 2009

Dr. Hamdi Zaqzuq, the minister of religious endowments, chairman of the supreme council for Islamic affairs, very loyally defended Dr. Muhammad Sayid Tantawy, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar. This is in regard to the raised wondering why Tantawy didn't withdraw from the religions dialogue conference held in Kazakhstan last week.
The objection came up because the Israeli President Shimon Perez attended the conference and was noticed sitting next to Tantawy on the same couch. During his meeting with the Islamic world students, held yesterday at Abu-Bakr Al-Siddiq camp in Alexandria, where Tantawy attended, Zaqzuq said that the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar avoided shaking hands with the Israeli rabbis, who wanted to shake hands with him during the conference room.
Zaqzuq also added that Tantawy never spoke with the Israeli president nor shook hands with him, confirming that everybody in the conference witnessed that. "What is wrong in sitting next to the Israeli president on the same couch?" wondered Zaqzuq. "
The host country held a round table for the invitees and that is why the invitees had to be seated the way they appeared in the conference room" he added, confirming that the Iranian delegation didn't withdrew because of the presence of the Israeli delegation there.   
The minister of religious endowments went back over the declarations he made last week, which revealed his consent about consulting the state security department in selecting mosques' Imams and preachers. Then he completely denied any interference from the part of the state security department in selecting imams and sermons.
He also confirmed that sermons are just pure preaching matters and the security authorities have no right to interfere in that.
On the other hand, Zaqzuq refuted what has been said about a ministry's plan for prohibiting the nightly prayers and seclusion in mosques, during the month of Ramadan this year. "Such redundant rumors are spread every year" said Zaqzuq expressing his opinion.
However, he pointed out that 2000 mosques have been designated for whoever wants to have their nightly prayers, performed with a whole one part of the wholly Koran, and other mosques have been designated for those who want to perform the same prayers in 20 minutes only.

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