CAIRO: Al-Azhar has strongly condemned Charlie Hebdo for republishing offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the French magazine’s Wednesday issue.
Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism urged the international community to “take a firm stance on the encroachment on Muslims’ sanctities and symbols.”
It said the insistence on republishing the cartoons reinforces hate speech, is a provocation against the world’s nearly 2 billion Muslims, and undermines interfaith dialogue and coexistence between people of different religions and beliefs.
Al-Azhar reiterated its strong condemnation of the criminal attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in early 2015, stressing Islam’s rejection of violence and urging those in charge of the magazine to respect the beliefs of others.
