Prof. Abbas Shouman, President of the World Organization for al-Azhar Graduates and Secretary-General of the Council of Senior Scholars at al-Azhar ash-Sharif, while presiding over the fifth session of the Islamic-Islamic Dialogue Conference in the presence of Prof. Ahmad at-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam, emphasized that al-Azhar makes great efforts to establish the principle of citizenship as a foundation for coexistence among people and for rejecting sectarian intolerance.
He further explained that while people differ in their religious affiliations and adherents of the same religion may vary in their doctrines and jurisprudence, such diversity does not hinder coexistence. The real problem lies in intolerance toward religious and sectarian affiliations, including the phenomenon of some Muslims declaring others as apostates and members of certain religions excommunicating their co-religionists over sectarian differences. Certainly, coexistence under the umbrella of citizenship eliminates all forms of intolerance and its harmful effects on individuals and societies.
