Prince Charles on Tuesday criticised the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the “ghastly” violence that followed them, calling on all “responsible men and women” to respect the religion of others.

“The true mark of a civilised society is the respect it pays to minorities and to strangers,” the Prince of Wales said at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

The prince and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, visited Al-Azhar, the foremost Islamic institution in the Sunni Muslim world, on the second day of their visit to Egypt.

They were hosted by the grand sheik of Al-Azhar, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the top Islamic cleric in Egypt, who awarded the Prince an honourary doctorate in recognition of his work to promote the understanding of Islam in the West. Some Al-Azhar clerics had criticised the decision to bestow the degree on the Prince. They argued that Charles did not do enough to deserve it.

JASPER MORTIMER