Hawzah News Agency (Cairo, Egypt) - Several French figures, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy and former prime minister Manuel Valls, in an open-letter published on the French Daily 'Le Parisien' urged verses of the Quran calling for the "murder and punishment of Jews, Christians and disbelievers" be removed. 

In response, Al-Azhar University's deputy during a sermon on Saturday said that the Quran does not call for murder but it calls for fighting back against hostile people instead. 

Al-Azhar’s deputy warned of such attempts against Islam's Holy Book that emerge every now and then and added that the Quran does not include verses that orders killing anyone without committing one of the crimes that requires killing a criminal, like the intended murder or raising of weapon.

He said that Islam is not responsible when others misunderstand the verses.

He underlined that the verses in question regarding fighting are all referring to defense of oneself in cases of being attacked and not to attack others.

According to Egypt Independent, the country's Dar al-Iftaa-affiliated Observatory of Islamophobia also slammed "such dangerous calls launched by some from time to time, causing attacks and antagonism against Muslims there, and creating a conflict among the people [of France]".