Hawzah News Agency (Tehran, Iran) - Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought (WFPIST) invited the imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, to take part in the upcoming International Islamic Unity Conference. In a meeting with Yassir Othman, who is in charge of Egypt’s Interests Section in Tehran, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki extended his invitation to Sheikh el-Tayeb to attend the international event.
The WFPIST will organize the 31st edition of the International Islamic Unity in Tehran on December 5-7.
The annual event marks the Islamic unity week.
The 17th day of the month of Rabi al-Awwal in the lunar Hijri calendar, which falls on December 6 this yearm, is believed by Shia Muslims to mark the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), while Sunni Muslims regard the 12th day of the month as the birthday of the last prophet.
The interval between the two dates is celebrated every year as the Islamic Unity Week.
Late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini (RA) declared the occasion as the Islamic Unity Week back in the 1980s.
Elsewhere in his meeting with Yassir Othman, Ayatollah Araki condemned the recent terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt’s Sinai and extended condolences to Egyptian people over the loss of lives in the attack.
He underlined that enhancing Muslim unity is necessary in order to combat the ideology of terror.
The Egyptian official, for his part, thanked Ayatollah Araki for sympathizing with Egyptian people over the tragic event.
He also said terrorist groups are threatening not only the region but the whole world.
As many as 305 worshipers were killed and over 100 others wounded in a bomb and gun assault that targeted a packed mosque in Egypt’s militancy-riddled Sinai Peninsula on Friday.
It was the bloodiest terror attack in the North African country’s modern history.
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