Al-Azhar, the world’s highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, has repeatedly warned against the spread of Shia Islam in Egypt.

“We have seen huge funds being paid to convert Sunni youth to the Shia sect, and that is what we reject,” El-Tayeb said during his weekly address on Friday, which is broadcast on a state TV channel.

The senior cleric expressed concerns over possible sectarian “sedition and bloodshed” such efforts might provoke, stressing that opposing such entails no “hatred towards one sect not bias towards another.”

Egypt’s population is estimated to be around 90 percent Muslim and 10 percent Christian. The size of the country’s Shia minority remains a source of debate.

Available at: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/162854/Egypt/Politics-/AlAzhar-head-rejects-efforts-to-convert-Egyptian-y.aspx