Al-Azhar International Peace Conference starts Thursday

CAIRO – 27 April 2017: Al-Azhar International Peace Conference kicked off Thursday with representatives of Islamic and Christian religious institutions and a large number of politicians and public figures.

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb, inaugurated the conference.

The conference’s first session, entitled “Challenges to Peace in the Contemporary World,” was headed by Patriarch Mar Louis Raphaël of Babylon.

Former Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, head of the Catholic University of Paris Philippe Bordeyne and Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director-general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), all gave speeches at the session.

The opening day witnessed the attendance of a number of ministers and political figures, including former interim President Adly Mansour, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Mufti of Lebanon Abdul Latif Darian, and members of the Council of Muslim Sages and the House of Representatives as well as scholars and leading figures from Al-Azhar and the Ministry of Religious Endowment (Awqaf).

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, is expected to attend the closing session of the conference Friday as part of his first visit to Cairo.