Al-Azhar headquarters in Cairo.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Observatory said the incident was not an isolated personal act but a deliberate provocation and blatant assault on the sacred beliefs of millions of Muslims worldwide.
It stressed that such crimes fuel white supremacist extremism and encourage white nationalist terrorist groups to commit further crimes against Muslims.
The Observatory underlined that the pursuit of political office can never justify incitement to hatred or the violation of religious sanctities, noting that such behaviour stands in direct contradiction to the human rights principles the US Constitution is meant to uphold.
It warned that resorting to extremist political propaganda undermines the values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence in society, while also fueling the global rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes driven by far-right rhetoric.
The statement further noted that the incident reflects Gomez’s broader record of hostility, recalling that she previously called for the public hanging of migrants.
After failing to gain sufficient political support by targeting migrants, she has now turned to attacking Islam in what the Observatory described as a desperate attempt to attract voters.
Al-Azhar concluded that such behaviour exposes Gomez as an extremist figure who disregards fundamental human values and exploits the sacred beliefs and emotions of others merely to secure a seat in Congress.
Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate running for Texas’s 31st Congressional District, ignited national outrage after posting a campaign video in which she used a flamethrower to set fire to a copy of the Qur’an, declaring her intent to “end Islam in Texas.”
In the incendiary footage, she asserts that “America is a Christian nation” and refers to Muslims as “terrorists,” urging them to “go … to any of the 57 Muslim nations,” alongside hurtful remarks about God and Islam.
In contrast, Muslims constitute a relatively small—but steadily growing—portion of the United States population.
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