“Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb has called for embracing morals as the sole way out of the world’s crises….Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” El-Tayyeb said.
Try telling that to persecuted Christians and other religious minorities.
In 2016, El-Tayyeb stated that “unrepentant apostates should be killed.” He explained:
If an apostate has left Islam out of hatred toward it, and with the purpose of acting against it – this is considered high treason, because this is a Muslim society, which has had Islam for 1,400 years and other religions for over 5,000 years. One does not have the right to… In this case, apostasy is a rebellion against society. It is a rebellion both against religion and what is held sacrosanct by society.
When asked specifically about the punishment for apostasy under Islamic law, El-Tayyeb answered:
The four schools of law all concur that apostasy is a crime, and that an apostate should be asked to repent, and that if he does not he should be killed….
“Abandoning religion” is described as “leaving the community.” All the early jurisprudents understood that this applies to someone who leaves his religion, regardless of whether he left and opposed his community or not. All the early jurisprudents said that such a person should be killed, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman – with the exception of the Hanafi School, which is said that a female apostate should not be killed.
When asked “why” the Hanafi school spares a female apostate, El-Tayyeb answered:
“Because it is inconceivable that a woman would rebel against her community. This underscores the fact that apostasy should be punished by death only if the apostate constitutes a danger to society.”
Now El-Tayyeb has declared something quite different and unorthodox, and is sure to be praised for it by willfully blind Westerners, without question. El-Tayyeb fancifully claimed: “Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,”
Merely two and a half months ago, a story broke that showed up what El-Tayyeb really is about: Nashaat Zarraa, an Islamic scholar and Grand Imam at the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments — and also a preacher at a mosque near Cairo — was demoted from his senior status and banned from lecturing and giving Friday sermons because he criticized the history of Islamic conquests. Zaraa stated:
The risk with sanctifying Islamic conquests in such an absolute way is implicitly condoning the approach by that terrorist organisations that use conquests as justification for jihad against all those who disagree with them in thought and belief, despite the fact that Islam restricts jihad to self-defence and does not justify the use of intimidation, killing and enslaving women to spread the faith.
Zarraa then “publicly called for a review of the history of Islamic conquests after al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb glorified them.” So let’s ponder this for a moment: Zarraa is condemning the historic view of El-Tayyeb and of normative Islam, in which bloody conquest and martyrdom in the way of Allah are glorified. Furthermore, “in a speech, Tayeb said it was because of conquests that Muslims were able to set one foot in China and the other in Andalusia.”
Will the real El-Tayyeb please stand up? The same El-Tayyeb who advanced “glorification” of jihad in Islamic conquests, and endorsed the murder of apostates, is now preaching that “Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” just in time for Ramadan, taqiyya-style. His message also coordinates well with his world peace partner, the Pope. The Vatican has just released a “fervent” message of best wishes for a “fruitful month of Ramadan.”
“Azhar’s Grand Imam Says Islam Seeks No War,” Asharq Al-Awsat, May 1, 2020:
Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb has called for embracing morals as the sole way out of the world’s crises.
“Islam doesn’t seek war or bloodshed, and Muslims only fight back to defend themselves,” he affirmed. In this case, Muslims are prohibited to kill peaceful individuals such as priests, women, farmers and the elderly.
In Thursday’s statement, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar said that “mercy” is a key moral feature in Islam to guarantee a decent life. Its absence turns people’s lives into chaos, causes social and family breakdown, incites evil, peddles dominance over the country and people, and ignites wars.
In his program ‘El-Tayyeb’, he stressed that the term “mercy” and its derivatives were mentioned 199 times in Quran, the statement read. God has urged believers to be merciful in all aspects, the Sheikh added.
‘El-Tayyeb Program’ is broadcast during Ramadan on several channels in Egypt and the Arab world….