Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A photo of a book that appeared next to Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb during his return flight from a European country, renewed on Sunday a debate over the concept of enlightenment among some of his supporters in Egypt.

The debate started when Dr. Khaled Montaser posted on his Twitter account the photo of Al-Tayeb during his return from a medical trip in Germany, with the book “The Decline of the West” by Moroccan thinker Hassan Aourid next to him.

Montaser tweeted that the book that the eminent Imam was reading while on the US jet is about the infidel West, adding in a sarcastic tone that if the Western civilization disappears, “we will not find a medicine tablet or a plane to return home.”

The tweet drew a wave of reactions, which considered that Montaser did not read the book.

Al-Azhar newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Sawy defended the photo and responded to Montaser without naming him.

He said that The Decline of the West book had provoked the anger of the pretenders of knowledge and enlightenment who saw only their own superficial minds in the picture of Al-Azhar’s sheikh during the trip.

Al-Sawy stressed that important Western writers and thinkers are interested by the subject of this book.

Also, expert in political science and former deputy in the Egyptian Parliament, Dr. Omar Al-Shobaki, explained that the book “is not superficial, and does not deal with the West as infidel.”

He said the book carries a practical critical vision of the negative aspects of the Western civilization and its political system and it is part of the Western vitality to allow self-criticism, and review and correct its own mistakes.

Shobaki stressed that this critical vision should please any person seeking real enlightenment.

He also touched on the “concept of enlightenment” by saying that the required enlightenment calls for religious, political, social and cultural reform.



One Man Gored, 7 Others Bruised in Spain's Bull Running Festival

'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
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One Man Gored, 7 Others Bruised in Spain's Bull Running Festival

'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez
'Mozos' or runners take part in the second Running of the Bulls during the Sanfermines festival in Pamplona, Spain, 08 July 2025. The San Fermin festival runs until 14 July 2025. EPA/Daniel Fernandez

A man was gored and seven others lightly injured on Tuesday, the second day of Pamplona's San Fermin festival in which thousands of people line the medieval city's narrow streets for the centuries-old tradition of running with bulls.

The man who was gored, identified only as being older than 25, was injured by a bull horn under his right armpit, a spokesperson for the city emergency services said.

"At this time, he is under observation but is in stable condition," she told reporters.

The seven others suffered bruises and contusions, some in the shoulder or head, Reuters reported.

In the festival's "encierros", or bull runs, fighting bulls are set loose in the streets and then race to reach the bullfight arena. Hundreds of aficionados, many wearing traditional white shirts with red scarves, run with them.

On Tuesday morning, one of the bulls stopped in the middle of his run, and charged the runners for several tense minutes.

The festival, which gained international fame from Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises", lasts for one week in early July.

Participants are occasionally gored at the hundreds of such bull-running fiestas in Spain every year. Other injuries are common. At least 16 runners have lost their lives at the Pamplona festival down the years, the last in 2009.

As well as the morning bull runs and afternoon bullfights, the San Fermin festival features round-the-clock singing, dancing and drinking by revelers.
There are also religious events in honor of the saint.