Pope urges Egypt imams to teach and preach tolerance, peace

CAIRO — Pope Francis urged Egypt's leading imams on Friday to teach their students to reject violence in God's name and preach messages of peace and tolerance instead, forging ahead with a delicate visit to the Arab world's most populous country following a spate of deadly Islamic militant attacks against Christians.

Francis arrived to a subdued welcome and a heavy police presence at Cairo's international airport. But he brushed off security concerns by driving into town with his windows rolled down in a simple blue Fiat — not the armored "popemobiles" of his predecessors.

Francis has said he wanted to bring a message of peace to Egypt, which has been enduring an increasingly emboldened insurgency led by a local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group.

In a speech to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi and diplomats from around the world, Francis strongly backed the Egyptian government's crackdown against the militants, saying Egypt had a unique role to play in forging peace in the region and in "vanquishing all violence and terrorism."

Francis' major event of the day was a landmark visit to Cairo's Al Azhar university, the revered, 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islam learning that trains clerics and scholars from around the world.

There, he warmly embraced Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, AlAzhar's grand imam who hosted the pope and other senior Muslim leaders, students and scholars at a peace conference. The conference center featured a mock-up of the famous Al-Azhar mosque, complete with faux windows and flooded with purple lights.

Speaking to the crowd, Francis recalled that Egypt's ancient civilizations valued the quest for knowledge and openminded education, and said a similar commitment to education is required today to combat the "barbarity" of religious extremism among the young.