Egypt’s newly appointed Grand Mufti Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam has called on political parties to reject violence, during a meeting with a British diplomat in Cairo. “Egyptian history tells a unique story of national unity,” Allam claimed during talks with British ambassador to Cairo, James Watt. “No one can harm the country’s national fabric." Watt celebrated al-Azhar as a representative of moderate Islam, adding that Britain will stand by the Sunni authority’s responses to coming events.