DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - EGYPT / VATICAN: HEAD OF AL AZHAR UNIVERSITY IS BEING CRITICIZED FOR HIS SCHEDULED MEETING WITH THE PONTIFF

Islamic leader draws criticism for meeting Pope

Cairo, Mar. 14, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A prominent Sunni Muslim leader is being roundly criticized for his plans to meet with Pope Benedict5 XVI later his month.

Sheikh Mohammend Sayyed Tantawi, the head of Al Azhar University in Cairo, is scheduled to meet with the Holy Father on March 22. But the visit drew opposition from Mustafa al Fiqhi, the president of Egypt’s parliamentary foreign-affairs committee.

“I am against this visit,” Fighi told the Al Ahram newspaper. He said that he opposed the Islamic leader’s willingness to speak with the Pontiff because the Pope had “offended Islam and the prophet Mohammed” with his speech at Regensburg last year.




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