The Shaykh of the Azhar, Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyib, has rejected the content of the document issued by the Sixth Synod on the Middle East, hosted by Pope Benedict the Sixteenth at the Vatican last October.

The document claimed that Christians in the East are currently experiencing a situation similar to that of early Christians who were persecuted and had their countries subject to Roman occupation.

In a message to the Muslim-Christian Brotherhood Conference held last Thursday in Damascus, al-Tayyib said that the Vatican document gives the impression that the danger to Christian presence in the East can be attributed to the policies of Muslim countries and to pressures arising from growing Islamic tendencies.

He emphasized that Islam not only recognizes the prophets, holy books, and laws of Christianity and Judaism, but that Islam says that human brotherhood is the basis for relations between people of different beliefs.

Al-Tayyib added that “we are extremely careful that Christian communities in the Muslim world remain alive and flourishing, safe and secure, because this is one of the principles of the East’s cultural richness."

When referring to the Israelis and Palestinians, the Vatican document made no reference to Israeli occupation, but did reference violence, "whatever its source may be," which amounts to equating victim and executioner, according to al-Tayyib.