CAIRO, March 10, (Agencies): Sunni Islam’s top cleric Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, a controversial figure in Egypt, died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack suffered while boarding a plane, state media said. Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar — Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning — had been in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, Egypt’s official MENA news agency said. Tantawi, 81, was boarding an early morning flight when he suffered severe pain and fell on the stairs, Egyptian television said. He was rushed to the Amir Sultan hospital in Riyadh where doctors pronounced him dead. An Egyptian official told AFP that Tantawi had died of a heart attack.
The news of his death was “an indescribable shock,” his son Amr Tantawi told the channel.

“The family has decided that since God chose for him to die on Saudi land, he will be buried in Al-Baqie” cemetery in Islam’s second holy city of Medina, he added.
Tantawi was appointed head of Al-Azhar, the 10th century university that has trained the majority of Sunni Muslim clerics from Africa and Asia, by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1996.
“The Islamic and Arabic world has lost a scholar and a jurisprudent” who was “dedicated to his work and to everything that served the good of Islam and Muslims,” Al-Azhar said in a statement.
The softly spoken cleric with a trim white beard, who was always seen wearing a traditional Azharite white turban, has long been a controversial figure in Egypt.
His rulings on a wide range of topics, such as the Islamic veil, abortion, suicide attacks, women prayer leaders and female circumcision, often caused a stir in the Islamic world and beyond.
Many however saw him as an employee of the state who moved Al-Azhar, which is tasked with propagating Islamic culture and religion around the world, in line with government policy.
“He was the weakest head of Al-Azhar ever because he saw himself only as a government employee,” Islamist and political analyst Kamal Habib told AFP.
“His tenure saw a severe deterioration in Egypt’s political life, and as a result a deterioration of the religious institution because of its links with politics,” said Abdel Halim Qandil, a leading opposition figure.
“Many did not appreciate the fact that Tantawi was involved in the country’s political affairs. But he was brave,” said Mohammed al-Hizbi, 32, an Indonesian student at Al-Azhar.
Last October, a national row broke out after Tantawi banned the niqab, or full face veil, in all residences and schools affiliated to Al-Azhar, except in classrooms where the teacher is male.
Many of his other rulings have also been controversial.
In 2003, he said suicide bombers were “enemies of Islam,” adding that “extremism is the enemy of Islam.”

After the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, Tantawi said: “It’s not courage in any way to kill an innocent person, or to kill thousands of people, including men and women and children.”
He also rejected Osama bin Laden’s call for a jihad, or holy war, against the West.
In 2007, Tantawi urged Egyptian Muslims to vote on a series of unpopular constitutional amendments put forward by the ruling National Democratic Party and boycotted by many.
The top cleric also sparked controversy in 2008 after shaking hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres at a religious conference.
Pictures of the handshake during the UN-sponsored religious dialogue caused a furore in Egypt, where a 1979 peace treaty with Israel remains highly unpopular.
He said at the time he did not know the octogenarian Peres.
Tantawi, who has three children, was born in 1928 in the village of Salim in Sohag province, about 290 kms (180 miles) south of Cairo. He graduated in 1966 from the theology faculty at Al-Azhar.

Kuwait
His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences to Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday on the demise of chief Azhar cleric Sheikh Mohammad Tantawi in Riyadh today.
Their Highnesses the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent cables of like sentiment to the leader.
Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly Jassem Al-Kharafi sent Wednesday a cable of condolences to his Egyptian counterpart Dr Ahmed Fathi Sorour over the death of Al-Azhar’s chief cleric Dr Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.
Al-Kharafi spoke highly in his cable of condolences of the achievements made by the late religious leader following an eventful life spent in learning, teaching, issuing fatwas and lecturing scholars.
Further, Al-Kharafi sent a similar cable of condolences to the Egyptian speaker of the Shura Council Mohammed Safwat Al-Sharif.

United States
The White House on Wednesday offered its deepest condolences following the death of Sunni Islam’s top cleric — who last year hosted President Barack Obama’s landmark speech to the Muslim world.
“We express our deepest condolences on the passing of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs in a statement.
“As the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar University, he was a voice for faith and tolerance who was widely respected in Muslim communities in Egypt and around the globe, and by many who seek to build a world grounded in mutual respect. “Sheikh Tantawi graciously hosted President Obama last June in Cairo, and we remember well his hospitality. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who mourn him on this day.”

In the speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009, Obama vowed to forge a “new beginning” for Islam and America in an address to the world’s Muslims that promised to purge years of “suspicion and discord.”
He also laid out a new blueprint for US Middle East policy, pledging to end mistrust, forge a state for Palestinians and defuse a nuclear showdown with Iran. Neither of the last two goals have yet been achieved.
Tantawi was appointed head of Al-Azhar, the 10th century university that has trained the majority of Sunni Muslim clerics, in 1996.