The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb and HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Heir Apparent to the British throne, discussed ways to enhance interfaith dialogue, during the meeting that brought them together, today, Thursday, at Al-Azhar Mosque. The Grand Imam also offered Prince Charles a copy of the Human Fraternity Document (HFD) cosigned by the Grand Imam and Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi (2019). His Eminence the Grand Imam said, “Al-Azhar has spared no effort in promoting dialogue and openness to the other, explaining that Al-Azhar has established strong relations with the Church of Canterbury, the Vatican and other international churches. These dialogue efforts culminated in prominent results, foremost of which was the HFD”. He added that Al-Azhar has launched a key project with the Canterbury Church in 2018,that is Emerging Peacemakers Forum (EPF), with the participation of 25 European and 25 Middle Eastern youth. The forum’s aim is to provide youth with dialogic skills, instilling tolerance in them so that they may be a nucleus and serve as ambassadors for establishing real world peace in the future.

Prince Charles expressed his appreciation for the efforts made by HE the Grand Imam in interfaith dialogue over the past years, especially Al-Azhar-Vatican efforts in promoting dialogue and spreading world peace. He stressed Britain's keenness to enhance scholarly and cultural cooperation with Al-Azhar.

Then, the Grand Imam and Prince Charles met a number of Al-Azhar researchers who received MA and PhD scholarships in Britain, closely acquainting with the nature of their studies, the scholarly and academic skills they acquired, and their future plans to benefit from these grants and to mainstream the experiences they gained to other students and researchers at Al-Azhar.