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CNS Story:
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POPE-TANTAWI Feb-20-2007 (280 words) xxxi
Al-Azhar's grand sheik agrees to meet for talks with pope in Rome
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- One of Sunni Islam's leading clerics has accepted Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to meet for talks in Rome, the Vatican said.
Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi of Cairo's al-Azhar University, a world-renowned center of Islamic scholarship, agreed to the encounter "with satisfaction," the Vatican said Feb. 20. No date was announced for the meeting.
It would be the pope's highest-profile encounter with an Islamic leader since his September speech in Regensburg, Germany, that sparked controversy and criticism throughout the Muslim world.
Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Vatican agency that coordinates interreligious dialogue, met Sheik Tantawi Feb. 20 in Cairo in what the Vatican described as "a climate of great cordiality" and conveyed the pope's greetings to the cleric.
Cardinal Poupard and Sheik Tantawi then reviewed the work of the Joint Committee for Dialogue, which includes representatives of al-Azhar and the Vatican. The committee was to meet Feb. 24 in Cairo for its annual session.
Cardinal Poupard also planned to meet with Egypt's religious affairs minister, Hamdi Zaqzuq.
In the weeks that followed the pope's Regensburg speech, some of the strongest critical reaction came from Muslim groups in Egypt. Sheik Tantawi did not join the harshest critics, but said the papal remarks indicated ignorance of Islam.
The pope later made clear that statements he had quoted about Islam and violence did not reflect his own views and said he was sorry that the speech had offended Muslims.
The controversy died down after the pope visited a Turkish mosque last November and prayed alongside his Islamic host.
END
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