His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb received His Excellency Sheikh Salman Al Homoud, Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs in the sisterly State of Kuwait, during his visit to Cairo. The Grand Imam praised the great role played by the State of Kuwait, represented in its Emir, its people and its government, in the Arab and Muslim arenas. He underscored the necessity of paying due attention to the nation’s youth and to communicating with them, instilling in them love for their homelands, listening to them, and redressing their misconceptions, as well as promoting their serious participation in building their homelands and crafting their future. His Eminence also indicated our need for systemic thinking and joint Arab campaign to coordinate ways of confronting terrorist thought. He thus stressed the need to reconsider pre-university education curricula in the Arab-Muslim world to educate young people and immunize them against the clutches of extremist thought. He applauded the efforts of His Excellency the Kuwaiti Minister and its direct impact on Kuwait’s youth who are well aware of many Arab-Islamic causes.

For his part, the Kuwaiti Minister of Information expressed his appreciation for Al-Azhar’s role in promoting Islamic moderation and confronting extremist thought. He also praised the efforts of the Grand Imam in consolidating the values of peace and the culture of dialogue and coexistence among different peoples and countries. He then asserted that the current conditions require intensifying efforts at all levels to elevate the Arab youth as the genuine asset in the Arab countries. 

His Excellency Sheikh Al Homoud spoke highly of the Grand Imam’s meeting with Kuwaiti youth, during his recent visit to Kuwait, in which he warned them of the danger of extremist ideology for countries and of relying on social media as a source of information about Islam and its Sharia and rulings. Then, during his visit to Al-Azhar Observatory, Sheikh Al Homoud commended the substantial role of the Observatory in monitoring extremist ideologies broadcast by terrorist organizations, analyzing and refuting them by specialized scholars of Al-Azhar.