Egypt: Presidential Decree to Appoint 4 New Senior Al-Azhar Scholars

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Monday with Austrian Parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Sobotka (Egyptian presidency)
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Monday with Austrian Parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Sobotka (Egyptian presidency)
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Egypt: Presidential Decree to Appoint 4 New Senior Al-Azhar Scholars

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Monday with Austrian Parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Sobotka (Egyptian presidency)
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Monday with Austrian Parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Sobotka (Egyptian presidency)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a decree appointing four new members to al-Azhar Council of Senior Scholars.

Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb announced a “special program to train foreign imams” saying they are being trained to deal with terrorist rhetoric.

The Council of Senior Scholars was restructured in 2012 to carry out several specializations, most prominently the representation of jurisprudential and legal opinion on the global Muslim issues.

The Council consists of almost forty members of the greatest scholars of Al-Azhar from all the four schools of jurisprudence.

The presidential decree included: professor of Criticism and Literature at the Faculty of Arabic Language al-Said al-Sayed Obada, professor of Interpretation at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion and Advocacy Hassan Ahmed Gabr, professor of Rhetoric and Criticism at al-Azhar’s Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies for Girls Mahmoud Tawfik, and professor of Emerging Comparative Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Sharia and Law Mohamed Hosni.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Tayyib received President of the Austrian National Council Wolfgang Sobotka and the accompanying delegation in Cairo.

Tayyib affirmed that Azhar is responsible for spreading the values of tolerance, dialogue, and acceptance, adding that the institution always communicates with all major religious institutions in Europe.

He stressed that the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” signed with Pope Francis is a milestone in relations between Christianity and Islam but also represents a message with a strong impact on the international scene.

The Document was signed in UAE in February last year and adopted “a culture of dialogue as the path, cooperation as the code of conduct, and reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.”

They also “resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood. These tragic realities are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings. They result from political manipulation of religions and interpretations made by religious groups.”

Sobotka praised Egypt's effective role in combating terrorism, extremism, and illegal migration, adding that Egypt is a pillar of stability in the Middle East and a beacon for moderate Islam.

He called on the international community to stand together to eliminate these phenomena. He expressed Austria’s keenness to benefit from the Egyptian experience in reforming religious discourse and from the experience of al-Azhar.



Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Troops Battle Palestinian Fighters in Gaza City of Khan Younis

 Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire, the military said on Friday.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said troops had killed around 100 Palestinian fighters since Israeli troops began their latest operation in Khan Younis on Monday, which continued as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the fighting.

It said seven small units that had been firing mortars at the troops were hit in an air strike, while further south, in Rafah, four fighters were also killed in air strikes.

The Islamic Jihad armed wing said it fired rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and other Israeli towns near Gaza. No casualties were reported, the Israeli ambulance service said.

The continued fighting, more than nine months since the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack, underlined the difficulty the IDF has had in eliminating fighters who have reverted to a form of guerrilla warfare in the ruins of the coastal strip.

A Telegram channel operated by the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two main militant groups in Gaza, said fighters had been waging fierce battles with Israeli troops east of Khan Younis with machine guns, mortars and anti-tank weapons.

Medics said at least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Khan Younis.

US PRESSURE

US President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, both urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a proposed ceasefire deal as soon as possible.

However there has been no clear sign of movement in talks to end the fighting and bring home some 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still being held in Gaza. Public statements from Israel and Hamas appear to indicate that serious differences remain between the two sides.

Local residents contacted by messenger app, said Israeli tanks had pushed into three towns to the east of Khan Younis, Bani Suhaila, Al-Zanna and Al-Karara and blew up several houses in some residential districts.

The military said air force jets hit around 45 targets, including tunnels and two launch pads from which rockets were fired into Beersheba in southern Israel.

Even while the fighting continued around Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, in the northern part of the enclave, Israeli tanks pushed into the Tel Al-Hawa suburb west of Gaza city, residents said.

A Hamas Telegram channel said fighters targeted an Israeli tank in Tal Al-Hawa and shot an Israeli soldier.

Medics said two Palestinians were also killed in an air strike in western Gaza city.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.