Benedict this month condemned attacks on churches that killed dozens of people in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria, saying they showed the need to adopt effective measures to protect religious minorities.
His remarks followed a New Year bombing outside a church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria that left 23 people dead and dozens injured and prompted demonstrations by both Christians and Muslims against sectarian violence.
The pope urged Christian communities to persevere in a non-violent manner in the face of what he described as “a strategy of violence that has Christians as a target.”
Al-Azhar’s “Islamic Research Council reviewed in an emergency meeting on Thursday the repeatedly insulting remarks issued by the Vatican Pope toward Islam and his statement that Muslims are discriminating against others who live with them in the Middle East,” Cairo-based Al-Azhar said in a statement.
“The council decided to freeze dialogue between Al-Azhar and the Vatican for an indefinite period,” it added.
Egypt’s government last week dismissed the pope’s remarks as “unacceptable interference” and summoned its Vatican ambassador back to Cairo for consultation.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Thursday that Al-Azhar’s move would not change the Vatican’s “policy of openness and desire for dialogue” with Islam.
Christians, mostly Orthodox Copts, account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s 79 million population which is mostly Sunni Muslim. Sectarian violence sometimes erupts over disputes on issues related to church building, religious conversions and interfaith relationships.
