From AFP:
Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious centre of learning, on Thursday urged Christians in the Arab world to stand firm in the face of jihadist violence and not flee into exile.
The call, made at a Cairo conference organised by Al-Azhar, came just days after Pope Francis pressed the world's Muslim leaders to condemn terrorism carried out in the name of Islam by groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda, and called for an end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
"We condemn the forced exile of Christians and other religious or ethnic groups," the conference said in a final statement.
"We urge Christians to stay rooted in their homelands and to weather this wave of terrorism we all are suffering."
Actually, they went a bit further than that - they asked the world not to help Christians fleeing their homes for their lives! "We appeal to the world not to facilitate the migration...migration achieves the objectives of the aggressive forces of displacement designed to hit the national State and tearing the civil societies."
Asking the world to abandon Christians to being slaughtered is a strange way of showing peace and tolerance, especially since the conference did not offer any concrete suggestions on curbing ISIS-style extremism
The conference's closing statement said:.
All armed factions, groups and sectarian militias that used violence and terrorism against the people of the nation, all the while -- falsely and slanderously-- raising religious banners, are groups that espouse evil ideologies and sinful behaviour and have no connection whatsoever to the true Islam...The terrorising of peaceful people, killing of innocents, transgression against property and money, and violation of religious sanctities are crimes against humanity, condemned by Islam in form and substance,Sounds pretty definitive, doesn't it?
Except that Al Azhar University leaders clearly don't include Jews among their definition of "innocents."
July 2013, in a televised sermon at the same Al Azhar University, cleric Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Mahdi said:
"Allah has taught [Muslims] that their worst enemies are those about whom He said: "You shall find the Jews and the polytheists to be the most hostile towards the believers" [Koran 5:82].
"Thus, Allah made Jihad for His sake and endurance of pain and hardship effective means to fight the people of Falsehood.
[...]
"The confrontation [with the Jews] is inevitable. Our Prophet does not lie. He told us that there would be a confrontation between the Muslims and the Jews before the Day of Judgment, and that the Muslims would vanquish them to the point that the Jews would hide behind the stones and the trees, but the stones and the trees would say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'
"Prepare for that day, for it will surely arrive, because the divine revelation harbors no lies."
October 2013, Ahmad Al-Tayeb, the Sheikh Of Al-Azhar University, who is in the center of the photo above, makes the distinction between Jews and Christians even more explicit:
"This is an historical perspective, which has not changed to this day. See how we suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism, whereas our peaceful coexistence with the Christians has withstood the test of history. Since the inception of Islam 1,400 years ago, we have been suffering from Jewish and Zionist interference in Muslim affairs. This is a cause of great distress for the Muslims.So when Al Azhar says that Islam condemns terror, there is an exclusion clause for Jews (and polytheists like Hindus) that Western media would rather not admit.
"The Koran said it and history has proven it: 'You shall find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.' This is the first part. The second part is: 'You shall find the closest in love to the believers to be those who say: "We are Christians."' The third part explains why the Christians are 'the closest in love to the believers,'" while the Jews and the polytheists are the exact opposite." [...]