AlAzhar calls Arabs and Muslims to reverse Trump decision

A council of top Muslim clerics of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, which is considered the world’s highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, has called on Arab and Muslim governments and organisations to take all necessary political and legal measures to reverse the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The Council of Senior Scholars said that Trump’s decision, which it described as “arrogant” and “reckless,” will not change the reality that Jerusalem is Arab, Islamic and Palestinian.

“These facts cannot be erased by reckless decisions or unjust prejudices,” the council said in a statement that was issued after a meeting of the council on Tuesday.

The council also warned about “attempts to normalise relations with the Zionist entity before its withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” said the statement, which was issued after a meeting of the council on Tuesday.

The council, an advisory body of Al-Azhar, urged educational institutions in Arab and Muslim countries to work towards raising awareness about the Palestinian issue in school curricula, weekly Friday sermons, and TV and radio programmes.

The council agreed to create a committee to draw up curricula on the Palestinian issue to be taught in “all grades” in Al-Azhar educational institutions.

The council – in cooperation with the Muslim Council of Elders, both headed by Al-Azhar head Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb – has set 17-18 January to hold an international conference to bring together senior Muslim and Christian clerics, political figures as well as regional and international organisations to drum up condemnation against the US move.

Earlier this week, El-Tayyeb rejected a meeting requested by US Vice President Mike Pence and scheduled that was for next week in protest against the US decision, which he said must be reversed by President Trump