CAIRO: The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, met with a delegation of German Members of Parliament from the Christian Democrats on Monday. The party belongs to the parliamentary bloc of Chancellor Angela Merkel's top parliamentary official, Volker Kauder. The meeting, held 10 days after a bombing at a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria left 23 people dead, was part of efforts by German Christian Democrats to safeguard religious freedom around the world. Al-Tayeb told the delegation that foreign attempts to divide Egypt and the region along the lines of Muslims and Christians run against the values of human rights and Christianity itself. “You must support the oppressed everywhere, including Palestinian Christians. Therefore, your government should not provide money and support to Israel,” al-Tayeb told the visiting delegation. He also stressed the concern of Muslims and all Egyptians regarding the church bombing, saying “Arab and Egyptian Christians are a part of our Islamic civilization, and we must fight terrorism targeting them.” BM
