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CAIRO, May 14 (AFP)-Sunni Islam's highest authority condemned on Sunday the acts of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group holding 21 hostages on a Philippine island, saying Islam rejects all forms of violence. "Such acts of violence have nothing to do with Islam," said a statement from Al-Azhar, Cairo's thousand-year-old center of Islamic learning and the highest authority for the Islamic world. "The Grand Imam [Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi] asks people to use their wisdom and understand that it is more just to make individuals accountable for their own actions, rather than hold a religion like Islam accountable," said the statement from Al-Azhar's permanent committee for dialogue with monotheistic religions. "The Muslim religion promotes peace, brotherhood and justice," said the statement. Nine Malaysians, three Germans, two French nationals, two Finns, two South Africans, two Filipinos and one Lebanese have been held since April 23 by the Abu Sayyaf group, one of the two Muslim groups fighting for an independent Islamic state in the south. |
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