Rabat - The Grand Imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque, Ahmed al-Tayeb, said on Wednesday that the Islamic State, known as IS or ISIS, is "barbaric," accusing "all armed groups and sectarian militias who use violence and terrorism... o having no relationship with true Islam."
During the opening of a two-day international conference, held in Cairo, Egypt, Ahmed al-Tayeb accused the “extremist militants of distorting the meaning of jihad.”
The Cairo conference, attended by Muslim scholars from 120 countries, as well as Islamic organizations and heads of Eastern Churches, urged, in a final statement, all Christians in the Arab world to stand against 'jihadist' violence and remain “deep-rooted in their homelands”.
"We urge Christians to stay rooted in their homelands and to weather this wave of terrorism we all are suffering," the conference said according to AFP.
"[These] militants operate under the guise of religion and gave themselves the name "Islamic State" in an attempt to export a false impression about Islam," Tayeb said.