His Excellency the Minister stresses the importance of renewing religious discourse and consolidating the concepts of moderation and tolerance

His Excellency the Minister, Shaikh Dr. Abdullatif Bin Abdulaziz Al Ashaikh, stressed that the Kingdom has given priority to renew religious discourse, consolidate the concepts of moderation and the tolerance, and confront the discourse of extremism and deviant sects, promote the culture of dialogue at all levels, focus on the youth of both sexes in terms of qualification, training and caring about the talented, and empowering them to influence the society as they represent its largest segment. In his speech, while heading the Kingdom’s delegation at the Al-Azhar International Conference for the Renewal of Islamic Thought, His Excellency conveyed the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and His Royal Highness, Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, may Allah preserve them, and their wishes that Allah maintains the security, stability, prosperity to Egypt's president, government and people. He appreciated the coordination and integration between the Kingdom and Egypt in Islamic affairs, strengthening moderation, renewing religious discourse, confronting extremism and terrorism, and spreading the culture of dialogue, tolerance and facilitation, in line with the purposes of Islamic Sharia and its judgements, and in accordance with the constants and values of Islam, and with Arab eternal and genuine values, and with unlimited support from the two wise leaderships of the two brotherly countries. His Excellency, the Minister, confirmed that the conference is taking place at an important time while the Islamic nation faces great challenges that have an impact on the security of the region, the stability of its countries and the coexistence of its peoples. In addition, it comes in the context of great efforts exerted by Al-Azhar, with the participation of some countries with action papers, researches and discussions that will be enriched by senior scholars and researchers in various axes of the conference and its sessions. He expressed his aspiration that the conference would produce valuable results and qualitative recommendations that would be positively reflected on the reality of Muslims in the issues of renewal in the various human sciences, as well as confronting the extremist Takfiri ideology, activating the religious institutions to develop the religious discourse and the vision of Islamic thought for human coexistence among followers of religions, beliefs and sects, addressing intellectual problems, and investing the human power in development, beside directing the youth to work on building their capacities and using them to serve their countries, to contribute to their glory and prosperity, and to stay away from the intellectual deviations and the currents of extremism, terrorism, incitement, atheism and decadence. He also said: “Renewing religious discourse is not a fabricated principle in Islam. Muslim scholars still pay attention to the issue of Ijtihad, because with Ijtihad, the scholar looks at evidence and uses it according to indications and variables. Therefore, Islam is valid for every time and place, and for every situation, and its validity for these matters is not due to its rigidity, but it results from that renewal that scholars understand. He added: “The renewal of religious discourse is not the renewal as understood by the close-minded people, as a change of judgements, or attack on the principles, or deviation of the texts from their meanings. Yet, it means the implementation of Sharia judgements, and the reflection on the discourse, and the clarification that the Qur’an addresses late Muslims as it addresses the early Muslims. Moreover, understanding the discourse in the later ages according to the ways of understanding by the righteous predecessors of the Muhajirun and the Ansar, and those who followed them in goodness. The renewal of religious discourse means to renew the understanding of religious discourse because the religious discourse does not change, for it is the words of the Lord of the worlds “. At the conclusion of his speech, His Excellency, the Minister, expressed thanks to the president, government and people of the Arab Republic of Egypt for their great efforts in serving Islam and Muslims, spreading peace, moderation, and confronting the currents of extremism, terrorism, atheism and decadence. He also thanked Shaikh Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, for the invitation, and praised the quality and excellence of the conference's preparation.