The decision to postpone a 'peace mission' to Rome this week by Ahmad al-Tayyeb, grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque was "not due to political pressure," according to his diplomatic councillor.
"This is not due to political pressure but to commitments at home," Mahmoud Abdel Gawwad told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Tayyeb is from Luxor, in southern Egypt, one of the countries where the first round of voting is taking place in the parliamentary elections that got underway yesterday, Gawwad said.
"This is why he asked to put his visit back," Gawwad added.
Tayyeb's had been due to visit Rome on Wednesday and address the Italian parliament but conservative Italian lawmakers and a former Israeli ambassador to Italy objected, accusing the imam of anti-semitism and of not recognising Israel's right to exist.
A sermon by Tayyeb on Friday was expected to urge Arab and Muslim unity against the common Zionist enemy, who he accused of "continuing aggression" at the Al-Aqsa mosque, according to a report by Egyptian state news agency Mena.
Violence between Palestinians and Jews has spiralled since clashes erupted at the flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September, with a wave of stabbings and ad hoc gun attacks on Israelis by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli.
Tayyeb's planned lecture to Italian lawmakers on religion and peace came as part of his efforts to build dialogue between East and West, the Al-Azhar said in a statement last week.
The Al-Azhar mosque and university is the highest authority in Sunni Islam. Tayyeb, considered to be one of the most moderate Sunni clerics in Egypt, was recently ranked among the world's top ten most influential Muslims.
