The image of the kiss between Pope Francis and the Imam of Al Azhar who traveled the world

With his trip to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis entered history by becoming the first pontiff to visit the Arabian Peninsula, the cradle of Islam. The first day of his visit, he also presented to the world an iconic and viral photo: a kiss with his "beloved friend and brother", Imam Ahmed al Tayeb, the highest authority of the Al Azhar mosque and Sunni Islam.

This historic gesture, which reflects the rapprochement of the two religions, recalls the "brotherly kiss" of Leonidas Brezhnev (USSR) and Erich Honecker (RDA), communists of the Cold War.

The picture was taken on Monday, on the first day of the Pope's first day in Abu Dhabi, when he participated in an interfaith international meeting and signed a document on "Fighting Extremism" ".

All day, the pope, dressed in white, and the great Sunni Imam of the Egyptian institute Al Azhar, in black, showed themselves together, fraternally, in front of the great mosque Zayed, one of the the largest on the planet, and then they kissed the rostrum of the interreligious conference, bathed in a rain of olive leaves.

Both condemned any discrimination against religious minorities and called for fraternity.

Before traveling, the pope described Al Tayeb as a "dear friend and brother". He had already visited it during his trip to Egypt in 2017 and before their meeting at the Vatican. In fact, it is Al Tayeb who received the Pope at the Abu Dhabi Airport.

Source: TN