A Communiqué from the Anglican/Al-Azhar dialogue committee

The Joint Committee, which is composed of a delegation from the Anglican Communion and from the Permanent Committee of al-Azhar al-Sharif for Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions, held its fifth annual meeting in Al-Azhar on 2-3 September 2006 which corresponds to 9-10 Sha‘aban 1427. This was held in accord with the agreement signed at Lambeth Palace on 30 January 2002 by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. We were very conscious that our meeting was being held in a time of particular political tension in the Middle East in view of the current turmoil involving the people of the region and also the tense situation in many Western countries arising out of a fear of terrorism. This has informed our discussion at this meeting. We were honoured by the participation of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawy.

The theme of our dialogue in 2006 has been ‘Freedom of Religion and Respect for Sacred Religious Values’. The subject was chosen in view of the recent controversy about the representation of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoon format and also attacks on sacred Christian symbols. The Joint Committee heard and discussed the following papers:

The Freedom of Expression and the Respect of the Religious Sites (Sheikh Omar El Deeb)
Freedom of Expression and the Respect of Holy Beliefs (Sheikh Ibrahim Atta Al-Fayoumy)
Freedom of Expression and Sacred Religious Values: a Christian (Anglican) perspective (Rt Revd Michael Nazir-Ali)
Representing Jesus Christ: A Christian perspective in dialogue with Islam (Mrs Clare Amos)

the rest