The grand imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Al Tantawi, has declared that he will not be commenting on whether he will or will not visit the Vatican, but in an interview with daily al-Ahram he said that the question would not be considered "until an official invitation is made by Pope Benedict XVI."His comments contrast with the Vatican’s statement, after a visit to Cairo on Tuesday by Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.
"The Pope's invitation to meet in Rome was accepted with satisfaction," the Vatican said in a statement after that meeting, though it did not specify when the meeting would take place.
"On the part of the Holy See there is the will to resume the work of inter-religious dialogue and overcome the chilly climate determined by the words of the Pope in his speech in Regensburg, Germany, [last September]" explained Tantawi, referring to comments by the pontiff linking Islam and violence which many people in the Muslim world considered offensive.
"But one cannot take a verbal invitation as an official convocation," he added."This does not mean we do not give the same importance to dialogue as the Vatican does, to bringing people and viewpoints closer together with a vow to building peace in the world."The dialogue committee, according to its president, Amr al-Daib, has not yet resumed its work, after being "frozen" following the controversial Regensburg comments.
Al Daib added that he had refused the invitation to take part in a meeting on Saturday in the Vatican and had sent in his place a delegate "with an official request by al-Azhar to correct the erroneous views expressed on Islam and on the Prophet.
"The al-Azhar's permanent committee for dialogue with monotheistic religions has been active for eight years in seeking to promote cooperation and understanding between various religious faiths.
A joint Catholic Islamic commission for dialogue was founded after Pope John Paull II visited the al-Azhar in February 2000 and meets annually.
This year’s encounter takes place in Cairo on Saturday.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce