Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb said that humanity today suffers from a chaos that is driving the world toward madness.
During a meeting, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, with visiting Finnish President Alexander Stubb at Al-Azhar’s headquarters, the Grand Imam said that Al-Azhar has actively promoted peace on all levels, both locally and globally.
Locally, it established the “House of the Egyptian Family” in cooperation with Egyptian churches, which has helped to nearly eliminate sectarian strife.
Internationally, Al-Azhar engaged positively with various churches and cultural institutions in the West, including the Vatican, the Church of Canterbury and the World Council of Churches, working together to establish the foundations of global peace.
He pointed out that the greatest challenge is bridging the gap between global decision-makers and the voice of religion, as represented by religious scholars, and persuading policymakers of the importance of this voice in guiding and protecting humanity from crises that target individuals, families and society as a whole.
For his part, President Stubb expressed his pleasure at meeting the Grand Imam and praised his global efforts to promote peace and coexistence.
He affirmed his agreement with Al-Azhar’s perspective on the successive crises facing humanity, emphasizing that the world is grappling with overlapping challenges, including ignorance, violence, wars and conflicts, which have left a trail of disease, epidemics and chaos.
He stressed that religious values serve as a reference for the principles and provisions of international relations and that today’s reality has expanded conflicts worldwide.
