Al-Azhar Al-Sharif denounced the attacks carried out by some people on a number of churches in eastern Pakistan, and affirmed its categorical rejection of such reprehensible crimes.
Al-Azhar stressed in a statement: "The Holy Qur'an, which is being attacked by some criminal extremists, in light of the failure of some governments, is the same that orders the preservation of places of worship for Muslims and non-Muslims, and prohibits encroaching on them in any way."
It added: "What those churches attackers fell into is exactly what those who offended the Holy Qur'an fell into, as both are crimes that are forbidden by religions, holy books, and human and moral norms."
Al-Azhar continued that, as it condemns these barbaric criminal acts, it stresses the need to prosecute all extremists who attack the Holy Qur’an, churches and places of worship, and calls for the need to take all legislative, legal and security measures that guarantee the protection of the sanctities of peoples and their places of worship, in a manner that guarantees that they are not attacked in any types of attacks that stir up strife and fuel currents of fanaticism and hatred.”
Source: National Iraqi News Agency