Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb said that building a mosque in front of a church restricts Christians and hurts them as it encourages harassment. He assured that al-Azhar had absolutely no qualms about building churches, as is nothing in the Quran or the Prophetic Sunnah that forbids this. In remarks to the “Sout (voice of) Al-Azhar” magazine, Tayyeb said that Al-Azhar would never interfere to prevent the construction of a church. The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar instead explained that building churches near mosques encourages harassment, which he says has been an inherited tradition amongst villages that has no origin in Islam. However what is required of me is that if the church is attacked, I, as a Muslim, must defend it.”Tayyeb said that Al-Azhar cherishes the relationship between Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, which stems from the correct understanding of religion.
