Al-Azhar Grand Imam to visit Iraq

Shaykh Khalid Abdul-Wahhab al-Mulla, the chairman of Iraq’s Council of Sunni Scholars, has led a delegation to Egypt where they met with scholars of the renowned Sunni al-Azhar University and the Egyptian of Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The Iraqi delegation was composed of both Sunni and Shi’ite scholars and politicians who delivered an invitation to al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, Shaykh Ahmad al-Tayyib, on behalf of Iraq’s Prime Minister, Haydar al-Abadi, to visit Iraq. al-Azhar’s Grand Imam announced his readiness to visit Iraq in the near future to witness the events and facts on the ground.

Shaykh al-Mulla and the Iraqi delegation discussed recent regional issues on the trip to Egypt and they delivered a full report of the events occurring in Iraq and of the crimes committed by ISIL terrorists against the Iraqi people – including the massacre of as many as 1,700 Shi’ite army recruits soldiers who were killed in cold blood by ISIS last summer. Their bodies were found in mass graves at Tikrit’s Camp Speicher military base.

The chairman of Iraq’s Council of Sunni Scholars also spoke of the position held by the Shi’ite sources of emulation in the holy city of Najaf in regard to the war against ISIL and stressed that there is nothing more important than the unity of the Iraqi people.

Last month al-Azhar issued a message repeated the accusations made by ISIL and its supporters against the Shi’ite popular movements fighting against the Takfiri terrorist group, saying that these forces have committed crimes against Sunni civilians.

These false charges were exposed by the reactions of many scholars, politicians and various segments of the population. For this reason, al-Azhar has agreed to send a delegation to Iraq to gain an awareness of developments there.

/SR