Al-Azhar Declaration in Different Languages
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Al-Azhar Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb; Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria; and Dr. Abdallah ben Beh, Vice President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars inaugurated on Sunday 23 October 2011, a seminar entitled “Cultural Consensus in Light of Al-Azhar Declaration” at Al-Azhar International Conference Center, Nasr City, Cairo. Co-organized by the BA Dialogue Forum and Al-Azhar, the seminar was attended by eminent scholars.
In his opening speech, Serageldin said Al-Azhar Declaration represents the common ground that most Egyptians share. He also pointed out that the Declaration was issued in Arabic and was translated into English, French, German and Turkish, as well as less popular languages so that it can reach out to the whole world.
Azhar’s Grand Imam shed lights on the main features of the Islamic culture in Egypt before its first interaction with the West following Bonaparte’s French Expedition. He concluded that it was first and foremost a humanitarian culture.
Dr. Abdallah ben Beh said that Egypt is by far the heart of the Arab World and has been a model of cultural co-existence throughout 14 centuries.