Al-Azhar Urges Action to Address Climate Change

Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
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Al-Azhar Urges Action to Address Climate Change

Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)

Al-Azhar has ordered its institution to draft a curriculum to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change and coordinate efforts to address environmental and climate crises.

This comes as part of Egyptian institutions’ preparations to host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“Preserving the environment and limiting the climate change crisis is a crucial matter and underestimating its negative impacts exacerbates poverty rates,” it noted.

Al-Azhar University’s third scientific conference for environment and sustainable development kicked off on Saturday in Cairo, under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The three-day event is attended by Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Awqaf Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa and Egypt’s Grand Mufti Dr. Shawki Allam, as well as prominent religious figures.

Among various topics, the conference will discuss the impact of pollution on climate and the negative effect of climate change on health, industry, water and agriculture, as well as the role of greenhouse gas emissions in upping pollution rates and global warming.

Tayeb underlined the importance of coordinating efforts between religious leadersو scholars and political leaders to raise awareness about environmental and climate crises.

Tayeb said that Sisi’s sponsorship of the event asserts Egypt’s interest and keenness to claim responsibility and play its role in facing the major challenges facing humanity.

Climate change is causing rise in temperatures, the outbreak of fires in forests, snowfall in the seas and oceans and the extinction of many animal and plant species, he stressed.

These have prompted officials in the east and the west to warn from these dangers, hold international conferences to address the causes of this catastrophe and work hard to prevent it and criminalize its perpetrators.

President of Al-Azhar University Mohamed al-Mahrasawi said climate change is an “old, modern and renewed issue,” considering it one of the most complex matters.

“Poor peoples are still paying a heavy bill as a price for the welfare of the major industrialized countries, their exploitation of the environment and their pollution and global warming.”

He called for forming a specialized scientific committee to prepare a simple educational curriculum on the dangers of climate and environmental changes and means to address them and reduce their effects.



Marzouki’s Case Referred to Anti-Terrorism Unit, Former Tunisian President Faces 20 New Charges

Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (AFP)
Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (AFP)
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Marzouki’s Case Referred to Anti-Terrorism Unit, Former Tunisian President Faces 20 New Charges

Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (AFP)
Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (AFP)

Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki announced on Tuesday that he had been informed his case had been transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Unit. He now faces 20 charges, including inciting internal unrest and spreading false information.
Marzouki wrote on X that his brother, Mokhles, was summoned on Monday to the police station of El Kantaoui (governorate of Sousse) to sign a document stating that Moncef Marzouki’s case had been referred to the Anti-Terrorist Judicial Unit.
Marzouki wrote that he had already been convicted to four and eight years in prison in two separate cases.
He concluded his post with a famous quote borrowed from Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi, “Night will no doubt dissipate.”
Last February, a Tunisian court sentenced former president Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia.
The charges against Marzouki, who lives in Paris, stemmed from remarks he made that authorities said violated laws and triggered incitement to overthrow the government.
Marzouki served as the first democratically elected president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014.
This is the second time Moncef Marzouki has been sentenced for comments made at demonstrations and on social media. In December 2021, he received a four-year sentence for undermining state security.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Defence Minister Khaled S'hili announced that Tunisia's national army had dismantled terrorist camps, neutralized 62 landmines, and seized various materials and equipment in 2024, as part of ongoing efforts in the fight against terrorism.
As of October 31, the Tunisian army had conducted 990 anti-terrorist operations in suspected areas, including large-scale operations in the country's mountainous regions. These operations involved over 19,500 military personnel, according to Defense Minister Khaled S'hili, speaking at a joint session of the two chambers of parliament.
He then confirmed that these operations led to the arrest of around 695 smugglers and the seizure of 375,000 drug pills.