Egypt’s Grand Mufti condemned Saturday a terrorist attack that killed at least seven people in the Afghan capital of Kabul as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shia neighbourhood Friday.

In an official statement, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam said that terrorism aims to shake the security and stability of nations and fuel “obnoxious sectarianism” to undermine their coherence.

He called on the Afghan people to stand side by side to fight terrorism and extremism.

Saturday’s statement by the Grand Mufti comes one day after Egypt’s Al-Azhar — the world's foremost institution of Sunni Islamic learning — also denounced the attack, calling on the international community to intensify efforts to take serious and prompt measures to face “the hands of evil” that commit such heinous crimes and scare safe citizens in their communities.

On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Afghan capital, killing at least seven people in an attack on a crowd gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of the mainly Shia majority Hazara political leader Abdul Ali Mazari by the Taliban in 1995. The attacker was stopped before reaching the main gathering of commemorators.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.