Statements by Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Mr. Ieronymos about Islam have caused controversy, prompting criticism from prestigious Muslim bodies, including Al-Azhar in Egypt.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ieronymos made remarks saying that Islam is not a religion, but a political party with political pursuit and its people are people of war. \u201cThey are the people of the spread, this is a characteristic of Islam,\u201d he said as quoted by Greek news outlets. The statements that were seen by Al-Azhar as \u201cfarcical comments and empty claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
The controversy stirred by the statements pushed Archbishop Ieronymos to clarify his statement later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism denounced in a report issued on Wednesday Archbishop Ieronymos\u2019s statements as \u201cfarcical comments and empty trivial claims that do not amount to be discussed or given attention,\u201d stressing that \u201cIslam is the eternal divine message that God Almighty sent Prophet Muhammed with, to bring humanity out of darkness and ignorance to the light of truth and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Al-Azhar report added that claiming Islam is a political party is a \u201cfabrication of history\u201d because the Islamic religion existed before the establishment of political parties, and even before the term politics was used in its modern meaning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIslam includes a life approach that made it suitable for every time and place,\u201d said the report, adding that Islamic Sharia (rulings derived from Islam) has laid the major foundation related to politics, such as consultations, justice, equality and freedom. <\/p>\n
Al-Azhar pointed out that accusing Muslims of being \u201cpeople of war, expansion and influence\u201d is pure lying, fraud and falsification of the history of Muslims, which is full of forgiveness and pardon, stressing that the prophet\u2019s invasion were either in defense of Muslims or for disciplining those who betrayed covenants.<\/p>\n
The observatory expressed its regret over the issuance of these hostile statements against Islam and the history of Muslims, calling for strengthening the principles of brotherhood instead of fueling the speech of hatred of others. <\/p>\n
Later on Wednesday, Archbishop Ieronymos clarified his statements through his spokesperson who said that \u201cThe Archbishop and our Church respect in practice all the known religions,\u201d adding that the statements about Islam meant the \u201cextreme fundamentalists who sow terror and death throughout the Universe,\u201d as quoted by the Greek City Times website.<\/p>\n
Egypt Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Statements by Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Mr. Ieronymos about Islam have caused controversy, prompting criticism from prestigious Muslim bodies, including Al-Azhar in Egypt. Mr. Ieronymos made remarks saying that Islam is not a religion, but a political party with political pursuit and its people are people of war. \u201cThey are the people of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":210956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[2486,2484,68869,68868],"class_list":["post-210955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-al-azhar","tag-egypt","tag-greek-archbishop","tag-mr-ieronymos"],"yoast_head":"\n