Egypt’s top cleric scolds Ahmadinejad
2013-02-06 10:07
Cairo - Egypt's top cleric has told visiting Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to interfere in the affairs of Bahrain or
other Gulf states, and to uphold the rights of his country's Sunni minority.
Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Egypt in
more than 30 years, was given a red-carpet welcome by Islamist President
Mohammed Morsi on Tuesday at the start of his landmark visit but was later
chided by the top Sunni cleric.
Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Sunni
Islam's highest seat of learning, also denounced what he described as the
"spread of Shiism in Sunni lands".
Tayyeb, who made the remarks in a statement after meeting
Ahmadinejad, demanded "the Iranian president respect Bahrain as a
brotherly Arab nation, and not interfere in the affairs of Gulf states".
He also said Ahmadinejad must uphold the rights of his
Shiite-ruled country's Sunni minority.
In October, Bahrain summoned an Iranian envoy to protest
against Tehran's "interference" in the Gulf state's internal affairs.
Iran has supported protests by Bahrain's Shiite majority against the Sunni
monarchy.
Following Tuesday's meeting, Ahmadinejad gave a news
conference at Al-Azhar in which he said he "came from Iran to say that
Egypt and the Egyptian people have their place in the heart of the Iranian
people".
"I hope this visit will be a new beginning for
solidarity between our two people," he said.
Frank discussions
But senior Al-Azhar cleric Hassan al-Shafie, who spoke after
Ahmadinejad, launched into a tirade against "some Shiites" for
insulting some of the Prophet Mohammed's companions as the Iranian president
listened with noticeable unease.
"The discussions were frank," Shafie said of
Ahmadinejad's meeting with Tayyeb.
Shiites revile some of the Prophet Mohammed's companions
they accuse of usurping power from his cousin Ali, whom they believe was
designated as his rightful heir.
Sunnis view this position as heresy, but Al-Azhar had
traditionally taken an ecumenical stance on Shiites.
But the Sunni institute has adopted a much harsher tone in
the past year, accusing Shiites of trying to spread their doctrine in Egypt and
even issuing a statement that used a pejorative term for Shiites - rafidah, or
rejectionists.
Al-Azhar's hardened stance is thought in part to stem from
the increased pressure of more conservative Salafi clerics, who share doctrines
of Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Sunni Islam.
In the evening, Ahmadinejad was booed by a man who also
tried to throw his shoe at the Iranian president as he left the Al-Hussein
mosque following prayers, according to a witness.
The man also pushed a bodyguard, but he was quickly dealt
with and Ahmadinejad was able to enter his car.
Thawing relations
In front of the mosque, four youths waved placards scrawled
with slogans against Iran over its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's
regime in its 22-month conflict with Sunni-led rebels.
Ahmadinejad will attend a summit of the 57-member
Organisation of Islamic Co-operation that opens on Wednesday in Cairo to tackle
crises ranging from the French-led battle against Islamist militants in Mali to
the Syrian civil war.
The visit comes amid thawing relations between Egypt and
Iran, which severed ties with Cairo in 1980 in protest over a peace treaty
between Israel and Egypt in 1979, the same year Iran's Islamic revolution
toppled the pro-West shah.
Iran has been reaching out to Egypt since Islamists came to
power in the wake of the 2011 revolution that ousted veteran president Hosni
Mubarak, a staunch critic of Tehran.
Morsi, who hails from the powerful Sunni Muslim Brotherhood,
has attended a Non-Aligned Summit in Iran, becoming the first Egyptian
president to travel to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
- SAPA
