Grand Shaykh of the Azhar Dr. Ahmad al-Tayīb called on the Western religious institutions led by the Vatican to stop "spreading the culture of hatred and incitation against Islam and end groundless attacks on it."
"We need to search for enlightened models that would contribute to disseminating the culture of understanding and rapprochement among nations and peoples instead of searching for black pages that spark venom, hatred and discrimination," said Tayīb during a meeting with a German delegation led by the president of the Humboldt University of Berlin.
The top Sunni Muslim cleric referred to a lecture delivered by Pope Benedict XVI of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican on September 12, 2006, widely known as the Regensburg lecture, in which he attacked Islam.
Tayīb stressed the need to abandon the culture of the clash of civilizations and interfaith conflicts, stop conjuring up the Dark Ages in the history of Europe and refrain from insulting Islam.
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