REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) received a courtesy call from Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Ath-Thayeb, of Egypt at the Merdeka Palace here on Monday. Jokowi greeted the Grand Sheikh upon arrival at the entrance of the Merdeka Palace at around 03.00 p.m. local time, an Antara journalist observed.

The president was accompanied by the President's Special Envoy for Interfaith Dialog and Cooperation and Civilization Din Syamsuddin, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, and Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi while receiving the Grand Sheikh.

Ath-Thayeb is visiting Indonesia at the invitation of Jokowi.

President Joko Widodo (left) welcomes Al Azhar Grand Sheikh Muhammad Ath-Thayyeb ahead of veranda talk at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Monday (April 30).

Jokowi assigned Syamsuddin to extend the invitation to the Grand Sheikh to attend the High-Level Consultation (HLC) of World Muslim Scholars on Wasatiyat Islam (Moderate Islam) scheduled to be held from May 1 to 3. The event will bring together hundreds of domestic and foreign ulemas and Islamic figures.

Syamsuddin remarked in a press statement released recently that Indonesia specifically invited Sheikh Ath-Thayeb to the event because it sees Al-Azhar as the leading Islamic study center in the country.

Sheikh Ath-Thayeb is also considered to be the main figure in the Islamic world, he added.

"Indonesia highly praises Al-Azhar for its role in developing world civilization through moderate Islam," Syamsuddin revealed.

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