Just before he left for to the U.A.E. earlier this month, Pope Francis sent a video message to the Emirati people: “I thank the friend and dear brother the Grand Imam Sheikh el-Tayyeb and those who have organised this meeting for the will and courage to affirm that faith in God unites and does not divide us.”
What does the Pope know about his “friend and dear brother,” Sheikh al-Tayyeb? In 2011, El-Tayyeb, who was then the President of Al-Azhar University, railed at Pope Benedict for his “interference” in Egypt’s affairs, a reference to Benedict’s denunciation — how dare he? — of attacks on Copts, and warned of a “negative political reaction” to Pope Benedict’s remarks about Islam. The threatening tone was unmistakable. In a statement, Al-Azhar denounced the Pope’s “repeated negative references to Islam and his claims that Muslims persecute those living among them in the Middle East.” This statement was issued as Muslims were not just persecuting but murdering Copts in Egypt, and killing other Christians in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan.
Pope Francis wanted to repair any harm that his predecessor, as he saw it, had caused to Muslim-Christian relations, and he soon extended an invitation to El-Tayyeb to visit him in the Vatican. “I want to meet him. I know that he would like it,” the Pope said during a February 18, 2016 in-flight press conference.
In May of that year, El-Tayyeb visited the Vatican. There was satisfaction all around. El-Tayyeb knew that the visit would help validate Islam in the eyes of 1.3 billion Catholics, and even to disarm critics, while Pope Francis allowed himself to believe that the visit by his new friend had contributed to “understanding” between the two faiths.
A few months after his visit to the Vatican, El-Tayyeb declared on June 16, 2016, in an interview that appeared on several Egyptian television channels and on the official YouTube channel of Al-Azhar, that apostates from Islam should be killed. He further said that “the concepts of human rights are full of ticking time-bombs” and that homosexuality is a disease. Apparently those remarks did nothing to dampen the Pope’s enthusiasm for El-Tayyeb. Francis’ mind was already made up. Killing apostates? Dismissing human rights as positively dangerous, full of “ticking time-bombs”? Who cares what El-Tayyeb said — we’re friends!
In 2017, the Pope, visiting Egypt, again met with Ahmad El-Tayyeb, and their friendship no doubt deepened. He did not ask then, nor has he raised the matter since, about the free book that Al-Azhar offers readers of its magazine, a book which, according to the well-known Egyptian political writer and thinker, Dr. Khalid al-Montaser, in an article for El-Watan News, continues to encourage enmity for Christians, and even incites their murder.
Montaser began his article by asking, “Is it possible at this sensitive time — when murderous terrorists rest on texts and understandings of takfir, murder, slaughter, and beheading — that Al Azhar magazine is offering free of charge a book whose latter half and every page — indeed every few lines — ends with “whoever disbelieves [infidels], strike off his head?”
Does Pope Francis know about this book that El-Tayyeb’s Al-Azhar sends out free to all who request it, with its repeated command to “strike off the head” of “whoever disbelieves”? Surely in the Vatican there are Arabic speakers who monitor the doings at Al-Azhar, as well as the major Arabic-language press, including El-Watan. Did no one send this information to the Pope? Were those around him in the Vatican perhaps leery of sending him anything critical of the Grand Imam, given that the Pope had made such a public investment in his “friendship” with El-Tayyeb?
Then there is the disturbing matter of El-Tayyeb’s antisemitism, which Pope Francis appears either to be ignorant of, or not to care very much about. The Grand Imam made his most revealing remarks on Jews in an interview aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV on October 25, 2013:
Ahmad Al-Tayeb: A verse in the Koran explains the Muslims’ relations with the Jews and the polytheists. The second part of the verse describes the Muslims’ relations with the Christians, and the third part of the verse explains why the Christians are the closest and most friendly to the Muslims.
This is an historical perspective, which has not changed to this day. See how we suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism, whereas our peaceful coexistence with the Christians has withstood the test of history. Since the inception of Islam 1,400 years ago, we have been suffering from Jewish and Zionist interference in Muslim affairs. This is a cause of great distress for the Muslims.
The Koran said it and history has proven it: “You shall find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.”
Does Pope Francis believe, with El-Tayyeb that 1.5 Muslims “suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism”? If he does, that would be intolerable. If he does not, shouldn’t he say something to make clear where he stands on the subject of Jews and of the Jewish state? Visiting the Western Wall and the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem in 2014 was welcome, but he needs to recognize, and not by his continued silence deny, the antisemitism that is everywhere in Islam. Is this a subject he’s fearful of bringing up? Or does he really not recognize the problem?