His Eminence Prof. Hassan al-Saghir, President of al-Azhar International Academy, attended the launch of the specialized training course themed “Deconstructing Extremist Thought” provided to 19 imams and preachers from Pakistan. This course is organized in coordination with the World Organization for al-Azhar Graduates and falls within the framework of joint scientific and capacity-building efforts aiming at preparing qualified preaching cadres capable of confronting contemporary intellectual challenges and entrenching the methodology of moderation.
The course runs for two weeks, from Sunday, April 26, through Thursday, May 7, 2026, within an intensive training program combining scholarly grounding with practical skill development. It aims to equip preachers with the ability to understand deviant intellectual phenomena in their various dimensions, grasp their contemporary intellectual, social, and media contexts, and enable them to deconstruct and refute misconceptions with sound scholarly awareness and a balanced, moderate preaching discourse.
In his address at the opening ceremony, Prof. Hassan al-Saghir affirmed that this course is being held in implementation of the directives of His Eminence, Prof. Ahmad at-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar ash-Sharif, regarding the importance of preparing and qualifying preachers from various countries around the world, to ensure their intellectual and cognitive fortification and enabling them to fulfill their role in spreading moderate thought and confronting currents of extremism and fanaticism.
He further explained that “confronting extremist thought is no longer merely a matter of knowledge-based rebuttals; it has become a comprehensive, multidimensional discipline requiring a precise understanding of the structure of extremist discourse, the mechanisms of its formation, and its social, psychological, and media contexts. This is what these training programs work to address, gathering both deep jurisprudential grounding and contemporary applications, so as to produce an aware preacher capable of persuasion, influence, and effective refutation.”
He added that al-Azhar ash-Sharif, through its scholarly and preaching institutions, continues to fulfill its global mission of spreading the values of moderation and tolerance and establishing an enlightened religious discourse capable of building the human being and confronting deviant thought through evidence, knowledge, and insight.
In closing, Prof. Hassan al-Saghir affirmed that the course would feature the participation of a distinguished group of professors, experts, and specialists across various fields related to the phenomenon of extremism, ensuring the delivery of a comprehensive training curriculum that brings together scholarly grounding and practical expertise, through theoretical lectures and interactive applied workshops that give trainees the opportunity to practically apply the concepts and skills acquired. This will, thereby, contribute to the achievement of the course’s intended objectives of producing preachers who are scientifically, intellectually, and practically qualified to confront extremist thought with firm awareness and a balanced, moderate methodology.
On their part, the Pakistani preachers expressed their great pleasure to join this course within al-Azhar ash-Sharif, praising the efforts of His Eminence, Prof. Ahmad at-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, in supporting and qualifying international preachers. Further, they extended their gratitude to al-Azhar institution, al-Azhar International Academy and the World Organization for al-Azhar Graduates for making this distinguished scholarly opportunity available. They affirmed their commitment to applying the knowledge and skills they will acquire in service of preaching work and the promotion of moderate thought within their communities.
