Hello Arié Bensemhoun, this week, you would like to come back to the delegation of European imams organized by ELNET.
Hello Eva,
From 6 to 11 July, ELNET, in collaboration with Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, organised an exceptional delegation of European imams to Israel. Thirteen imams from France, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom responded to the call of conscience and courage.
Their coming was a moral act, an act of truth. It was a question of understanding, of meeting, of seeing, of witnessing, of reaffirming a shared humanity — far from the current context, from community fractures, ideological manipulations and instrumentalized hatreds.
They met with the President of the State of Israel, MPs, ministers, but also survivors of October 7, bereaved families, Druze, Israeli Arab and Bedouin communities. They visited Jerusalem, Kfar Aza, the site of the Nova festival massacre, the northern border, and to the south, the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which humanitarian aid passes into Gaza.
Everywhere, they listened to the pain. Everywhere, they reached out. And everywhere, they have sown the seeds of another path.
But this gesture of peace has also triggered a wave of hostility of unprecedented violence.
Some have been banned from mosques. Others, like Imam Chalghoumi, are facing complaints of “high treason” in their home country of Tunisia. Now, it is the Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt — the highest Sunni authority in the Muslim world — that is issuing a fatwa against these imams. A banishment. A real verdict of infamy.
Arié, how does this statement by al-Ahzar represent a danger for these imams?
Because it is equivalent to excommunication. Massively relayed by Islamic institutions — especially those close to the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the European Council of Imams based in Paris — this statement by Al-Azhar amounts to stripping the 13 imams of the delegation of their status as Muslims.
And it is a sentence with serious consequences. Because in the fanatical imagination, such a fatwa becomes a license for hatred. It is a sign of social death, often a prelude to physical death.
These men were designated as traitors: to their faith, to their community. Forbidden to preach, banned from certain mosques, threatened, isolated — for having wanted to understand. For having chosen the path of peace.
And this fatwa is not trivial. It emanates from a powerful institution, which is supposed to embody the wisdom and spiritual responsibility of the Sunni world. However, in a declaration that has now imposed itself as an official and popular international Islamic consensus, Al-Azhar uses the language of the most extremists, speaking of the “Zionist entity” or “occupied territories”, in a stubborn refusal to recognise the existence of Israel – even though it has been linked to Egypt by a peace treaty for 46 years.
And as if all this were not enough, this fatwa came a few minutes after a meeting between the rector of Al-Azhar and the ambassador of Qatar — Hamas’s main supporter and regional sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood. This statement is the result of a cynical alliance between retrograde interests and strategic calculations.
Arié, why is it crucial that the authorities take up this case?
Because the stakes go far beyond this delegation.
This fatwa is not only aimed at a few courageous imams: it is aimed at the very idea that a dialogue between Muslims and Jews is possible. It attacks peace, coexistence, the Abraham Accords, and any attempt at rapprochement. It seeks to lock Islam into an inhuman reading where Israel is an abomination, where the Jew is an enemy, where fraternity is a betrayal.
That is why we are making a solemn appeal.
To the European states: protect the imams of peace. When a European imam with universal values is threatened with death for extending his hand, the whole of Europe is targeted.
To the European institutions: call on the Egyptian authorities. Denounce this attack on religious freedom.
To the diplomats: summon the ambassadors. Demand the withdrawal of this fatwa.
To the Muslim authorities in Europe: clearly disassociate yourselves. Defend an Islam that is faithful to European values.
Because this fatwa is much more than a threat. It reveals the immense weight that some still place on those who dare to speak of peace. It shows how much fraternity disturbs.
And yet, this delegation embodied another path. She tells us that an imam can look a survivor of October 7 in the eye, listen to him, take him in his arms. She tells us that it is possible to cry together. To build together. To believe together in a better future.
Eva, peace is a choice. A demanding choice. A choice that must be defended relentlessly. For if a misfortune were to befall one of these men of faith, those who have remained silent will bear part of the responsibility.
Today, in the face of hatred, silence is no longer an option.
