BREAKING NEWS

Seat of Sunni Islam denounces Syria crackdown

By REUTERS

AUGUST 8, 2011 17:38

CAIRO - The head of the most influential school of Sunni Islam added his voice on Monday to international and Arab criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad's assault on protesters, describing the bloodshed as a human tragedy that must stop.

A statement from Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, head of Cairo-based al-Azhar, a university and clerical body that has been a central seat of Sunni scholarship since the Middle Ages, said the body owed it to the Syrian people to "clearly announce matters have gone beyond the limit".

"This is a human tragedy that cannot be accepted," Tayeb said in the statement carried by Egypt's state news agency MENA. "Blood was shed, families were split up ... and unarmed people are being fought with live ammunition, iron and fire."

"Blood only fuels the fires of revolutions," Tayeb said, calling on Syrian authorities to immediately stop the bloodshed and respond to the "legitimate demands of the people".

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