Egypt’s Azhar condemns Bishop’s Quran remarks

CAIRO (Al Arabiya) Egypt’s al-Azhar on Saturday released a statement strongly criticizing a senior Coptic bishop for saying that some verses in the Quran, the Muslim holy book, were inserted at a date after it was first written down.

Members of al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Center held an emergency meeting led by the institution’s head, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb and came out with a statement describing the bishop’s suggestion as “irresponsible.”
“This irresponsible behavior only threatens in the first place the national unity at a time when we are in dire need to preserve and support it,” according to a copy of the statement obtained by Al Arabiya.
Bishop Bishoy, secretary of the Coptic Church’s Holy Synod, had suggested last week that certain verses of the Quran had been inserted into the holy book after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, implying doubt over their validity.
“This irresponsible behavior serves but the universally declared hostile purposes against Islam, Muslims, their culture and civilization, which requires those behind these abuses to rise up to the level of national responsibility, review their statements and turn to their senses,” the statement added.
Muslims believe the Quran was handed down to Mohammed verbatim by the Archangel Gabriel over a period of around 23 years.
“If the world’s insightful minds condemned in strong disapproval the abuse of the Holy Quran by some people in the West, Egypt’s insightful people among both Muslim and Christian intellectuals are required to respond to any attempt to abuse any religion,” Al-Azhar said.
During a recent meeting with the Egyptian ambassador in Cyprus, attended by some media, Bishoy said certain verses of the Quran contradict the Christian faith and that he believed they were added later by one of Mohammed’s early successors, Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan.

Muslim outrage

The remarks sparked outrage among both Christian and Muslim leaders, saying they could lead to sectarian tension, and Bishoy told a lecture on Wednesday there had been a misunderstanding.
“My question as to whether some verses of the Quran were inserted after the death of the prophet is not a criticism or accusation,” he said. “It is merely a question about a certain verse that I believe contradicts the Christian faith,” Bishoy told an audience in Fayoum, south of Cairo, in statements carried by al-Masry al-Youm.
“I don’t understand how that can be turned into an attack on Islam,” Bishoy said, insisting his remarks had been taken out of context.
Salem Abdul Geleel, deputy minister at the ministry of religious endowments, also criticized the comments.
“The faith of Muslims is a red line that can in no way be discussed by a non-Muslim … Just as we do not discuss the faith of non-Muslims,” Abdul Geleel said in a statement carried by the opposition daily al-Wafd.
The Egyptian constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but there is great sensitivity when it comes to religious matters. Simmering tensions occasionally flare up into violent incidents between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.
Three Egyptian Muslims are currently on trial for gunning down six Copts after they came out of Christmas services in Nagaa Hammadi in southern Egypt.
Coptic Christians make up around six to 10 percent of the 80 million population and complain of systematic marginalization and discrimination.