DAR AL HARB - VATICAN: MOHAMMED SAYED TANTAWI WILL TRAVEL TO THE VATICAN

Top Muslim cleric agrees to meet Pope Benedict XVI
dpa German Press Agency

Vatican City- Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand sheik at theAl-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, has agreed to meet Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The sheikh is described as a moderate and is regarded as thehighest spiritual authority for nearly 1 billion Sunni Muslims worldwide.

His decision to accept the pope's invitation was made public by the Vatican press office after a visit to Cairo by Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Vatican's commission on relations with Muslims.

A date for the meeting has not yet been announced.

Benedict has been working hard to improve relations between theChurch and the Islamic world since making a speech in Germany inSeptember in which he angered Muslims by appearing to equate theirreligion with violence.

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Vatican official meets Egypt's leading Islamic cleric

Cairo, Feb. 20, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue met with the head of the leading university in the Islamic world on February 20 in Cairo.

Cardinal Paul Poupard met with Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al Azhar University, for a conversation that was described as occurring in “an atmosphere of great cordiality.”

The main topic of the meeting was the work of the joint Catholic-Islamic commission for dialogue, which was founded after Pope John Paul II visited Al Azhar in February 2000. The commission meets every year, alternating its annual sessions between Cairo and Rome. This year’s meeting will take place in Cairo on February 24. Sheikh Tantawi has been a regular partner with the Vatican in inter-religious talks, and has supported the calls of the Holy See for religious freedom. At an inter-religious conference held in Qatar in 2004, the Egyptian cleric said that "constraint and belief are not compatible." However, Sheikh Tantawi indicated last year that he could not accept the message delivered by Pope Benedict at Regensburg, and insisted that “the Pope must retract his statements” before he could be welcomed at Al Azhar.

***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

Islamic leader denies accepting papal invitation

Cairo, Feb. 22, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A leading Islamic cleric has announced that he is weighing an invitation to visit the Pope-- an invitation that the Vatican announced he had already accepted.

Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the rector of Cairo’s Al Azhar University, told reporters on February 22 that he has not yet received a formal invitation to visit Pope Benedict XVI, and will not make a final decision until he hears from the Pontiff.

The Vatican had announced a day earlier that the prominent Sunni Muslim leader had accepted the invitation proferred by Cardinal Paul Poupard, the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, during a visit to Cairo. But Sheik Tantawi said that “one cannot take a verbal invitation as an official invitation.”

The Egyptian cleric said that he welcomed the visit from Cardinal Poupard, and believed that the Vatican is working to repair the damage done to Catholic-Muslim relations by Pope Benedict’s speech at Regensburg last year. Earlier he had said that the Pope “must retract his statements” to ensure further progress in relations.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Top Muslim cleric agrees to meet Pope Benedict XVI

2) Vatican official meets Egypt's leading Islamic cleric

3) Islamic leader denies accepting papal invitation