CAIRO: Al-Azhar, whose grand imam was pictured kissing the pope in a photo montage by Italian clothes company Benetton, on Thursday slammed the advertisement as "irresponsible and absurd."
So absurd was the concept that the institution — Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning — "is still hesitating as to whether it should issue a response," Mahmud Azab, adviser to Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb, told AFP.
Azab said he wondered if this type of campaign was "in fact dangerous for universal values and freedom of expression as understood in Europe."
For its part, the Vatican said Thursday it was taking legal action against Benetton, despite the Italian clothing company agreeing on Wednesday to pull the photo, saying it was "sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful."
The Vatican said its State Secretariat would ask its lawyers "to take action in Itay and abroad to prevent the circulation in the mass-media and elsewhere of the photo montage produced as part of Benetton’s publicity campaign."
It said Benetton’s portrayal of Pope Benedict XVI "is wounding not only to the dignity of the pope but also to the sensibilities of the faithful".
"This shows a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offence to the feelings of believers, a clear demonstration of how publicity can violate the basic rules of respect for people by attracting attention with provocation," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
Benetton’s poster showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips Egypt’s Ahmed El-Tayyeb, a leading voice in Sunni Islam.
It launched Wednesday a new global advertising campaign called UNHATE that contained a series of photo montages of political and religious leaders kissing.
Other shock pictures show US President Barack Obama kissing Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
One picture showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smooching Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. In another, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is depicted kissing German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The posters appeared in Benetton clothing stores across the globe as well as in newspapers, magazines and on Internet websites.
The company defended the campaign, saying its purpose "was solely to battle the culture of hate in all its forms".
