Azhar grand imam to urge tolerance in pope meeting

Belgium defiant two months after IS attacks

The deputy of Al-Azhar’s grand imam in Egypt said on Sunday the top Muslim cleric will bear a message of tolerance when he meets Pope Francis in Rome.

Monday’s meeting will be the first between the leader of the world’s Catholics and one of Islam’s most important clerics.

Abbas Shuman, deputy to grand imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, told AFP on Sunday that Francis’s gestures towards Muslims encouraged Tayeb to meet the pope after falling out with his predecessor Benedict XVI.

“If it were not for these good positions (by Pope Francis) the meeting would not be happening,” Shuman said.

Ties between the Vatican and Al-Azhar, one of Islam’s most prestigious centres of learning, soured in 2006 when Benedict delivered a speech interpreted as linking the Muslim Prophet Mohammed to violence.

Relations have steadily improved since Francis became pope in 2013 with inter-faith dialogue near the top of his agenda.

He underlined this improvement in ties with a personal message to the Muslim world to mark the end of the first month of Ramadan during his pontificate.

Shuman said Tayeb will have a message for both the West and Muslims.

Tayeb’s visit aims at setting straight the image of “true Islam and to correct misunderstandings created by extremist terrorist groups” in Western countries, he said.

“He encourages countries not to deal with their Muslim citizens as groups that present a threat,” Shuman said.

“And he encourages Muslims in Western society to meld with their societies... it is a message for both sides.”

Pope Francis made headlines in April when he returned from a trip to the migrant crisis island of Lesbos with three Syrian Muslim families who are now being put up by the Vatican as they apply for asylum in Italy.

Church officials say the choice of families was random, but the gesture was nevertheless highlighted by media throughout the Islamic world.

BRUSSELS:

Belgian premier Charles Michel vowed Sunday that the West will ultimately defeat Islamic State group “terrorists”, as the royal family hosted a ceremony marking two months since the deadly Brussels bombings.

King Philippe, speaking to an audience of 500 at the royal palace in Brussels, thanked the doctors, police and other emergency services who helped on March 22, when 32 people were killed at Zaventem airport and the Maalbeek metro station.

“If we are here in the palace, it is to express the support and gratitude of all the Belgian people,” said the monarch, who with his wife Queen Mathilde visited the injured in hospital the day after the attacks.

Prime Minister Michel vowed that Belgium and other countries fighting IS — which claimed the Brussels bombings as well as last November’s attacks in Paris — will eventually prevail.

“This is not a war between the West and Islam. And we will do everything to stop these terrorists. This is a difficult fight. A fight that will take time,” he said.

“We will know setbacks and successes. But I am confident that we will win.”

It was the first time the entire royal family — including Philippe’s parents Albert II and Paola, his sister Astrid, brother Laurent and their partners — had hosted such a ceremony.

Thirty-two white roses were placed in front of a stage to commemorate those who died.

“Where blind violence strikes our world, a new sense of fraternity is coming together,” said Kristin Verellen, whose 58-year-old husband Johan Van Steen, a senior civil servant, died at Maalbeek station.

“There is no point in responding to hatred with hatred ... us against them, that would only increase the atrocity.”