Pope Francis, in Egypt, Delivers a Blunt Message on Violence and Religion

Pope Francis, in Egypt, Delivers a Blunt Message on Violence and Religion
With Grand Imam Tayeb seated beside him on a stage decorated with minarets, Francis said
that more attention needed to be paid to educating the young "to counter effectively the barbarity of those who foment hatred and violence" and warned that "evil only gives rise to more evil, and violence to more violence." He argued that education, which Al Azhar has large influence over in the Sunni world beyond Egypt’s borders, was crucial to preventing new generations of radicals.
Alberto Melloni, the director of a liberal Catholic research institution, the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, said
that in the days leading up to the speech, Francis repeatedly made reference to the saint’s visit centuries ago and saw his own mission in a similar vein.
CAIRO — Pope Francis delivered his most blunt and powerful message to the Muslim world on Friday when he began
a papal mission to Egypt by warning against wrapping violence and terror in the language of religion.
Al Azhar said that As religious leaders, we are called, therefore, to unmask the violence that masquerades as purported sanctity,
He added: "We have an obligation to denounce violations of human dignity
and human rights, to expose attempts to justify every form of hatred in the name of religion, and to condemn these attempts as idolatrous caricatures of God." The papal visit came at a critical time for Egypt, a country caught up in intensifying terrorist attacks, particularly against Christians, and a deepening crackdown by an authoritarian government.
"It was a meeting of religions." During his speech, Francis made a reference to St. Francis of Assisi
and his visiting of Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt to promote civility even as crusaders sought to gain control of the Nile.
Francis said that Some minutes ago you told me that God is the God of liberty,
At Al Azhar, he embraced the mosque’s Grand Imam, Ahmad al-Tayeb, who urged the West not to hold an entire religion "accountable for the crimes of any small group
of followers." Pope Francis then turned to matters of state, seeking to encourage progress on human rights from his host, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.