From the religion of peace and tolerance...
Dec. 10, 2008
Despite official relations with the Jewish state, Egyptian politicians and newspapers are clamoring for the country’s top Muslim cleric to resign for shaking Israeli President Shimon Peres’s hand.
Egyptian newspapers created a national uproar when they ran a photo of Sheikh Mohammad Sayyid Tantawi greeting Peres at the United Nations at an interfaith conference in November.
"[Peres] was in a place, and I was in the same place... and he met me, stretched out his hand, so I greeted him,” said Tantawi, who heads Cairo's al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's leading religious authority. “And suppose I knew him? So what... Isn't he from a country that we recognize?"
He insists that he didn't recognize Peres. But nevertheless, Al-Dustour, a daily newspaper, is calling for his dismissal saying Peres is tainted with the blood of thousands of Palestinians.
Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have made peace with Israel, still harbor deep resentment and hatred towards their Jewish neighbor.
Peres hasn’t commented, but his office said at the time the encounter was pleasant and that the two men had a serious conversation. Senior Egyptian politicians regularly meet with Peres and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hosted the Israeli president just two months ago.
And this is from a peaceful nation. Imagine the ones who openly call for Israel’s destruction?
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