BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani congratulated his newly elected Egyptian counterpart over his election to the post, a statement from Dar al-Fatwa said Thursday.
Qabbani called Sheikh Shawqi Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam and congratulated him over his new post “in the service of Islam and Muslims in Egypt and the Arab world.”
Allam was elected as Egypt's new Grand Mufti Monday following a vote by members of the Al-Azhar Senior Scholars Authority, to become the first Egyptian mufti chosen in a vote as opposed to being appointed by the president.
Allam will replace the outgoing mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, who will retire in March at the age of 61.