"These criminals have been able to transmit to the world a tarnished and alarming image of Muslims," Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said.
"These fundamentalist terrorist groups, whatever their names, and their backers are colonial creations that serve Zionism in its plot to destroy the Arab world."
Al-Azhar is Egypt's top religious authority and runs a university long seen as the most prestigious centre of Muslim learning.
It espouses a different school of theology within Sunnism than the radical Salafi views of the Islamic State and other jihadist groups, and has backed a government crackdown on opposition.
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I am not a scholar concerning the Bible or the Koran. I have read more about the Middle East than the average person. It seems to me that these people have been at war with each other for thousands of years, even before there were Jews, Christians or Muslims. The inhumanity that they have visited upon one another for thousands of years has been atrocious. When I try to walk a mile in their moccasins (sandals) their minds are untenable to me. Suffice to say the horror they have suffered cannot be understood by my western mind, To my knowledge rape, torture, mutilations, poisoning, genocide and beheadings have not been inflicted upon any of my family for as far back as I can trace our genealogy. Then you consider how many of these people have been persecuted by their own governments, that we in the west have supported and we wonder where ISiS came from. We helped to create ISIS, by meddling in something we can't begin to fathom.
@Munir Ahmed: And just where is it reported in Jewish Daily Israel Today that there is "Direct participation of Jews fighting for Is"???? Cannot find any reference to that on their webpage, so please give us the issue date of article you are referring to! (If it ever existed at all!!!!)
@Munir Ahmed:
That is completely twisting the news, which said that there are "Israeli Arabs" involved in fighting for the Islamic State. Israeli Arabs are Muslims - not Jews.
Perhaps then the Sheikh can explain how the ISIS executed 2 Americans of whom one was a dual American / Israeli citizen? And also why is the US then bombing their own or their ally's creation ?
@Raj-USA - though muslim countries especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar etc have helped such groups around the world - not a secret anymore - Several countries including Australia and China have reported their citizens are fighting in Syria and Iraq - latest report from a Jewish daily Israel Today has reported there is a direct participation of Jews fighting for IS. Thanks to Egyptian Al Azhar for letting the world know of this.
Oh, stop and wake up. I don't believe you. I think that your news is based on the Iranian press "leaks" that are meant to confuse the 'other' Western world to gain sympathy for the Iran/Qatar MB alliance. Wake up New York Times. You are contributing to a serious problem
This is the problem with muslim countries. If you do not accept that the problem is yours, and your own creation, how are you going to cure it? Blaming it on all others or saying that they are not muslims will not solve the problem. They are muslims, may be the wrong type. Accept it and correct them. Disowning them will not help.