The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed El-Tayeb, renewed his call to the Vatican’s head, Pope Benedict XVI, to officially apologise for insulting Islam, confirming that such an apology is a basic condition for the resumption of interfaith dialogue between the two religious authorities.
El-Tayeb who today unofficially received Michael Girard, the Vatican’s ambassador to Cairo, refused to resume relations between Al-Azhar and the Vatican unless the Pope gives a clear apology for insulting Islam and Muslims as well. The Grand Imam stressed that relations between the two faiths are normal but that official relations between Al-Azhar and the Vatican are currently frozen.
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