Paul KeenanMuslim leaders have responded to Pope Francisí call on extremism, writes Paul Keenan
Your starter for a short Christmas quiz: who offered the following call on December 4?
“We condemn the forced exile of Christians and other religious or ethnic groups. We urge Christians to stay rooted in their homelands and to weather this wave of terrorism we all are suffering.”
So numerous have been messages of this nature among Christian prelates and leaders over the past months of Islamic State (IS) horror and Syrian conflict that the reader might, quite reasonably, opt for any one of them in seeking an answer. Yet even hazarding a guess that the origins of the message lie within the Christian ’camp’ is wrong in this instance.
So reliant are we, in the Western world, on media in this hemisphere that the reader can be forgiven for not identifying the 700 Muslim clerics and leaders who backed the call for Christianity to endure in Arab lands. The joint call was issued at the end of a most important gathering at Egypt’s al Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s most renowned theological body. What is said at al Azhar reverberates across the Arab world.
Aside from the declaration closing the conference, the opening address by al Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmad al Tayeb (who inaugurated the event alongside honoured guest Coptic Pope Tawadros II) was unambiguous about IS and its supporters. They are, he asserted, operating “under the guise of this holy religion and have given themselves the name ‘Islamic State’ in an attempt to export their false Islam”. The Grand Imam went on to accuse IS of dividing “the Islamic nation” through “division, strife and polarisation”.
Equally as important, though, Grand Imam al Tayeb reserved a few words for his fellow Muslims gathered in Cairo: “We should not ignore our responsibility for the emergence of extremism that has led to the formation of organisations such as Al-Qaeda and other armed groups,” he said.
Missed
What was missed internationally was hailed immediately at local level. Responding to the messages, Coptic Bishop Anba Antonios Aziz Mina described the gathering as one of “historic importance”.
“This is the first time,” the bishop said, “that such an influential Islamic institution openly declares that theories used by terrorists and extremists to justify with the Koran violent activity, are a perversion of genuine Islam.
“Until now Islamic institutions and academies have almost always been timid in condemning such tendencies. Condemnation came only in the face of major terroristic acts and usually referred to one specific act of violence. Now the target is the entire rotten ideology which lies behind strategies of Islamist extremism.”
Bishop Mina’s words offer reason enough to be frustrated with the apparent lack of interest among western media outlets about events in Cairo.
After months of seeking outright condemnation from Muslim representatives for terrorist acts carried out in the name of their religion, the message from a multitude of leading Muslims registers little more than a blip on media radars.
Yet soft power continues and may ultimately lead to the greatest undermining of militants currently stalking the Arab world, becoming the real story for commentators on events.
Take, for example, an event preceding by a number of days the al Azhar gathering.
On his official trip to Turkey, Pope Francis visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, offering a prayer but, crucially, joining his hosts in facing towards Mecca during the event.
The symbolism was not lost on many in the Arab world, with numerous messages of warmth issued in response from that quarter.
Later, on his flight back to Rome, the Pope felt emboldened enough to call on Muslim leaders to do more to counter extremism.
At least one British newspaper warned that such words would only invite “Muslim ire” in response. Yet the response came in the form of the al Azhar event and its strong message against militants and cultures in which they rise.
The lesson here, surely, is that those commentators looking to the battlefield for victory over IS are going to miss the winning of the war, which looks set to happen in the precincts of the Vatican and al Azhar.