The call by the Prince of Wales for greater tolerance between faiths will be well received today, when he delivers it in a speech to senior Islamic scholars at al-Azhar University in Cairo, the ancient heart of Muslim learning. His message is one of the most thoughtful summaries of the Prince’s long engagement with Islam. And it has an urgency which he fully acknowledges: his heart, he says, is “incredibly heavy” from all the destruction and death caused by terrorism. There is a pressing need for greater tolerance and a profound obligation on reasonable and responsible people to work harder to achieve harmony.

The Prince picks his words carefully. He does not link terrorism with Islam, nor does he suggest that intolerance is found only in the Middle East. But he does give frank and timely expression to the widespread view, in the West as well as among moderate Muslims, that those who preach violence or perpetrate terrorism in the name of Islam have fostered hatred, besmirched their religion and made more difficult peaceful dialogue among faiths. And he makes clear his disappointment that Muslims who embrace their faith with reverence and respect do not more forcefully denounce those who would make it an instrument of division.

The Prince rightly underlines the importance of respect by one religion for another — especially the three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, which share not only monotheism but a panoply of moral and ethical principles. Such respect is essential, not simply to prevent a mindless drift towards a new East-West clash of civilisations, but to encourage the integration of Muslim minorities in Western society and avert the prejudice that flourishes with ignorance and alienation.

All three religions commend such tolerance. The Prince will remind his audience that at a time of widespread religious tensions, fanned by extremists for political ends, the Middle East stands in urgent need of these precepts. Sheikh Tantawi, the Rector of al-Azhar, will agree: he has consistently denounced terrorism, called for peaceful dialogue and joined senior Jewish and Anglican leaders in the Alexandria declaration, a valuable but little publicised religious underpinning for peace in the Middle East. Muslim leaders, nevertheless, need to understand that respect and acceptance must be mutual, applying not only to Muslim minorities in the West but equally to Christians and others in the Muslim heartlands. The prohibition on public worship by non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia is unacceptable. The stoning of churches and harassment of Christians in Pakistan is disgraceful. And expressions of anti-Semitism in Muslim countries as well as by Muslim activists in the West are repulsive.

The most vexed issue, on which there must be greater mutual tolerance, is the treatment of apostasy. By tradition, Muslims insist on the death penalty, although this is nowhere prescribed in the Koran. In Afghanistan, a Christian convert may be executed if found guilty under Sharia. Conversion there may be unusual; but in mixed societies — Britain or Nigeria, for example — this is an issue that increasingly needs to be faced. In Britain, the Prince has called on society to think more inclusively of Islam; in Cairo, his words should challenge Muslims to think more deeply about the need for tolerance and mutual respect.