Recent outbreak of novel Corona Virus-2019 (nCoV-19) has posed serious threat all over the world. Scientists and healthcare professionals are consistently working to control transmission and complications of COVID-19. So, I welcome the participants of the “1st International Online Conference Pharmaceutical and Medical Sciences: A Response to COVID-19” scheduled on September 1-3, 2020 held by Faculty of Pharmacy (girls), Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

We welcome you in Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest universities  all over the world, in which many sultans, rulers, presidents, Al-Azhar Sheiks, muftis, ministers, ambassadors, scientists, and scholars have studied. Al-Azhar University hosts the greatest number of international students from (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Australia) where they study Islamic, human, and empirical sciences. Al-Azhar University is one of the most important knowledge fortresses in Egypt and the world. It bears the responsibility of protecting the Islamic and Arabic identity, spreading Islamic enlightenment, editing heritage, and publishing outstanding works on sciences and arts. It promotes the values of citizenship, love, peace, pluralism, and accepting the other. Al-Azhar colleges exist in most of Egyptian governorates and teach Islamic, theoretical, and practical sciences as well as unique academic areas of specializations. It is pleasure to Al Azhar University to welcome students, learners, researchers, and professors from all continents with solemn promises to provide the best education service and care to students and researchers. Al-Azhar University welcomes any contribution or suggestion for better educational system. It calls social and academic actors, inside and outside the country, to participate in this great foundation and exchange ideas, opinions, and theses.

Al-Azhar University as well as its scholars and graduates worldwide undertake their role to maintain intellectual balance, protect minds from cultural extremism, build civilizational bridges, and promote international peace among nations through openness and serious culture that guarantee human dignity and protect human freedom everywhere. In this regard, I sincerely thank the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar for his great support of Al-Azhar University to enhance its role and complete its civilizational and human participation in the promotion of sciences, arts, tolerance, and peace worldwide. I also would like to thank faculty of Pharmacy for Girls for this initiative that reflect our scientists responsibility.

Hence, we welcome again our respected speakers, guests and participants in the “1st International Online Conference Pharmaceutical and Medical Sciences: A Response to COVID-19”.

Prof. Muhammad Hussein El-Mahrasawy

President
Al-Azhar University
Cairo, Egypt