On Monday, December 3rd, 2012, Arab-West Report Editor-in-Chief, Cornelis Hulsman and three interns working for Arab-West Report met with Prof. Dr. Mahmūd Hamdī Zaqzūq (age 79), the former Minister of Awqāf (Endowments), former president of the High Islamic Council in Egypt, and current president of the Bayt al-'Aylah dialogue center of the Azhar. The main goal of the meeting was to discuss cooperation possibilities between the Bayt al-'Aylah and AWR, but also to discuss Egypt‘s current political situation, the Azhar‘s efforts in the interreligious dialogue, and questions of interns, including Prof. Zaqzūq‘s opinion about niqāb-wearing women and the death penalty for apostates.
Future cooperation with Arab-West Report
The meeting started with a short introduction of all attendees and of AWR as an objective and independent organization with the goal of proper media reporting and critiquing media that distorts information. There were also discussions about how Egyptian students could engage in research projects together with the Arab-West-Report interns. Due to the fact that Prof. Zaqzūq has been away from the university for over 15 years now, he currently has not many connections to students anymore. But he mentions the girls’ faculty of Al-Azhar University in Nasr City and recommends talking to Dr. Abū Hashā, chairman of the German department.
